Nigeria’s main opposition party, PPDhas asked anti-corruption agencies to investigate any applicant who spends N100 million or N50 million to buy nomination forms.
He said such people should be investigated for fraud.
“It is most insensitive and mind-boggling. In fact, all those who purchase the N100m and N50m nomination forms must be investigated for fraud,” read part of the PDP statement.
The party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, made the call in a statement signed by his special adviser on communication and strategy, Simon Imobo-Tswam, on Thursday.
Your comment is a reaction to a recent announcement by the All Progressives Congress (APC).
PREMIUM TIMES reported how APC set the cost of its expression of interest and presidential nomination forms at N100 million.
The party set the expression of interest form at N30 million and the nomination form at N70 million.
For the gubernatorial bid, APC approved N50 million for nomination and expression of interest forms, while Senate and House candidates will pay N20 million and N10 million, respectively. Contenders for state legislative seats must pay N2 million for both ways.
The APC also approved a 50 percent discount for candidates under the age of 40 and free tickets for women and people with disabilities.
‘Rogues, hypocrites’
But the PDP said that these prices give the ruling party the image of rascals and hypocrites.
Nigerians, he said, can see what the APC is: a fragmented alliance created to capture power and inflict maximum pain on Nigerians, including its own members.
The PDP recalled how President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2014, said he had to borrow N27m to buy his nomination form and wondered why the same person has now “sanctioned” the sale of the same forms at N100m, a increase of about 370 per penny.
Describing the prices as insensitive, Ayu said APC has “disenfranchised thousands” and dashed the hopes of millions of young Nigerians who applauded the president when he signed the Not Too Young To Run bill into law in 2018.
Although the sale of forms for the APC will start on April 23, about 10 applicants have shown interest.
The PPD. on the other hand, it priced its presidential nomination forms and expression of interest forms at N40 million and around 17 hopefuls have indicated interest in applying for the position so far.