‘Lai Mohammed’s claim he funded our 2019 election another blatant lie,’ Kwara lawmakers mock minister

Members of Kwara State House of Assembly have faulted the claim by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, that he single-handedly funded the All Progressives Congress (APC) election programmes in 2019 as baseless.

The minister had said on Saturday he single-handedly funded the APC election in 2019.

Mohammed, who addressed APC members during the commissioning of the party’s new state secretariat in Ilorin, said nobody gave the party “one penny” apart from what he gave out for the election.

But the Speaker of the House, Yakubu Danladi-Salihu, who addressed journalists at a media briefing on Sunday in Ilorin, only the state governor, Abdulrazaq Abdulrahman, supported them during their campaigns.

Represented by his Deputy, Raphael Olanrewaju Adetiba, at the briefing, the speaker said the minister did not provide any form of support to the APC House of Assembly candidates during the 2019 campaigns and election.

He insisted Mohammed’s was economical with the truth on his claim on the 2019 election.

READ ALSO: Gov Abdulrahman maligning me after I financed his election – Lai Mohammed

Danladi Salihu said: “We ordinarily should have ignored the minister and took it as another lie from Lai Mohammed. But for the unsuspecting members of the public and posterity, the record needs to be set straight.

“Lai Mohammed did not give any support in any form to members of the ninth legislature during the campaign and election; if he did, he should name who and what he gave out.

“Lai Mohammed did not participate in any of our election campaigns and did not also contribute financially to it.

“Apart from the governorship candidate, the other support was the sum of N500,000 each that we received from the national headquarters of our party. Other than that, it was the governor who funded our expenses including logistics, souvenirs, posters, and other campaign materials. Even so, at no time did the governor go about telling anyone that he funded our campaign.

“It is also laughable that Lai Mohammed could claim to have personally raised money to finance the 2019 general elections in Kwara State.”

The lawmakers advised the minister not to drag them into his dispute with the governor.

Victor Uzoho

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