Okupe defends PDP govs' N1.05bn donation to Jonathan's campaign

Okupe defends PDP govs' N1.05bn donation to Jonathan's campaign

Jonathan

The Presidency has defended the donation of N1.05 billion by 21 People's Democratic Party (PDP) governors to the re-election campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs Doyin Okupe, in a statement Sunday, described as untrue and mischievous, the accusation by the All Progressives Congress (APC) that the PDP governors who donated at the event had not paid civil servants in their states.

Each of the PDP governors had donated N50 million at a fund raising dinner held Saturday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja where a total of N21.27bn was raised.

Okupe said the APC probably had its Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State in mind while making the accusation "because it is on record that despite being the major financier of the Buhari campaign, this is the governor who has not paid 13,000 teachers their salaries in the last 8 months".

He said the suggestion by the APC that the money donated be used to fund power projects portrayed the opposition party as an unserious, unfocused and defective organisation with no reasonable alternative solutions to Nigeria's g problems.

He said the suggestion also underscored "the perplexing ignorance of Gen. Muhammad Buhari and his team of party voyagers who have shown that they've absolutely no clue about what it requires to implement a modern revolutionary programme in a capital intensive sector such as power".