The delegates that participated in the just concluded primaries
of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party and the opposition All Progressives
Congress across the country have been laughing to the bank following the huge
amount of money some aspirants reportedly paid to them.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that the aspirants sent some of the
money to the delegates through the leaders of their parties. It was learnt that apart from the money, incentives such as
promise of automatic employment, among others, were also deployed in wooing the
delegates.
Some delegates who spoke to our correspondents confirmed
that they were given money by some aspirants who needed their votes. However,
the delegates pleaded anonymity for fear of reprisal from their party leaders.
In Enugu State, Saturday PUNCH learnt that most of the
delegates that participated in the various primaries collected money, but some
delegates got more than others. It was gathered that most of the delegates that voted at the
PDP governorship primary election held on December 8, 2014 at the Nnamdi
Azikiwe Stadium, Enugu, and won by Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, got N100, 000 each.
A delegate, who simply gave his name as Ejiogu, confirmed to
one of our correspondents that he received the amount. But he claimed that the
sum was less than what he expected. A parallel primary, which was won by Senator Ayogu Eze, was
also held in Enugu on the same day.
Although none of the delegates that participated in the
parallel exercise could be reached to confirm the report, it was learnt that
they equally received cash gifts in the region of N100, 000 each.
Delegates that participated in the various primary elections
for the PDP National Assembly tickets also laughed to the bank, particularly in
areas where there were parallel primaries.
“The least we got was N100, 000,” a delegate who pleaded
anonymity said, but some delegates said they received N50, 000.
In a particular senatorial zone in the state, there were
about four primaries and people immediately grabbed the opportunity to serve as
delegates. But one of our correspondents gathered that delegates that
participated at the state House of Assembly primary were not lucky, as most of
them left empty-handed.
Delegates for the APC governorship primary were also not
lucky. It was learnt that the APC delegates were given N5,000 as their
transport fare.
But delegates for the APC presidential primary were luckier
as one of the aspirants, was said to have donated the sum of N50, 000 to each
of them.
Even before the APC presidential primary, it was said that
the aspirant who later lost, had splashed N16.4m on the 208 APC delegates in
Katsina and N8.5m on delegates in Sokoto states.
Of the N8.5m donated in Sokoto State, the aspirant had said
that N5m was meant for the party’s secretariat in the state; N1m for elders of
the party and N50, 000 each to the 208 delegates.
The PDP in Akwa Ibom State was said to have paid each of its
delegates N1m.
It was gathered that the delegates were given the money on
the eve of the primaries.
But one of the APC delegates in the state said they were
only given allowance. He said the party was not rich to the extent of doling
out huge amount of money to delegates just to woo them for votes. Continue from Source
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