Bello didn’t give a dime for Buhari’s forms – NCAN

…To present form to Buhari
A group under the platform of Nigeria Consolidation Ambassador Network (NCAN) which recently purchased Nomination and Expression of Interest forms for the re-election bid of President Muhammadu Buhari, has said that no dime was gotten from Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state contrary to speculations.

There have been insinuation that on the social media that the Kogi state governor responsible for the nomination using the group.

But while addressing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, NCAN National Coordinator, Barr. Sanusi Musa, who debunked the claim, stated further that he has the leader of the pro-APC group has never met the Kogi state governor.

Musa also that they are planned to formally present the form to President Buhari when he must have settled down after his official visit to China.

According to Musa, his group out of conviction generously contributed their hard earned resources among all the members of the group nationwide to raise enough money which they used to purchased the said forms.

Musa said: “Well, let me say that I, as a person never met Governor Yahaya Bello. I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me as a person.

Of course members of our group in the State, he might have known some of them but as an association since it was formed in August 2017, I have never made any efforts to meet Governor Yahaya Bello or any other governor to solicit financial support.

“So, probably some people think because of the closeness of Governor to President Buhari, they thought that he might be the one that has done this.

Or probably because some of these members of this group members visited him, that might have informed him their decision to say that.

But I want to say that as at now, no single government official has contributed a single kobo to our money. No! Certainly No! ”

“I think that is a question to be answered by those who feel the particular governor has purchased forms for him. But certainly I am not in the position to answer any question for them but I think it is good for democracy.”

He said that the group had taken time to mobilise its members across the country and was able to raise amounts in excess of the the cost of the presidential nomination form.

“What this is showing is that if somebody as a leader you perform excellently, you don’t need to be thinking of amassing wealth, you don’t need to be stealing the commonwealth of the people because of needing the money for next election.

“What is showing is that, as long as you will be able to give people good governance, then, they will be ready to give their token to you to be re-elected, to give you another mandate. That is the way I see it and that is a commendable development.”

On whether the group broke the electoral law in purchasing the forms, Musa said that the group took time to study the legal provisions and there is no where the the Electoral Act mentioned donations to aspirants.

Instead, Musa said that the extant laws referred to contributions in support of a party’s candidate in an election which under the circumstance, was not the case with what the group did.