By Shola Abayomi.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has distanced itself from Hamisu Wadume’s confessional statement which indicts the party in alleged thuggery and election violence.
The wealthy kidnapper, had during interrogation revealed he was allegedly given N13 million as a youth leader in the APC to mobilize and hire thugs where necessary, and make arrangement for weapons in order to protect its supporters and ensure victory at the 2019 polls.
Wadume added that he also received about N6 million from an unidentified sitting governor.
Debunking the claims, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu stated that the party had no budget for political thugs.
Onilu said: “It is expected that the alleged kidnapper, having come face to face with justice, would throw whatever he could lay his hands on into the fray. In any case, our party did not have budget for thugs.
“Unlike the period when the ruling party dipped hands into the public treasury to fund political campaigns and elections, APC had to rely on its own resources. Even if we had all the money, we would never allocate money for kidnappers and murderers. That era ended with PDP.
“Perhaps, he can name whoever gave him money. Definitely, it was not APC. From his purported confession, he claimed to be a PDP member before he went on to contest under another party.”