Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, April 29, 2019

Mobile campaign signs or political spiff?

Did the governor hand out gifts or just mobile campaign signs?

Ondo APC Members Kick As Akeredolu [the governor] Orders Them To Return Buhari-Osinbajo Campaign Vehicles

Rotimi Akeredolu, Governor of Ondo State, has ordered the withdrawal of all the branded vehicles he donated for the re-election bid and campaign of President Muhammadu Buhari ahead of the 2019 general election, SaharaReporters can exclusively report.

The vehicles donated by Akeredolu before the election were presented to some leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state…

As of press time, the motives behind the withdrawal of the branded campaign vehicles were not known to the party leaders/members, who have been grumbling underground since the decision was effected.

To further confirm withdrawal of the branded vehicles, SaharaReporters exclusively obtained a terse memo calling on leaders and members of the party in possession of the branded vehicles to return them…

Multiple sources in the ruling party in the state, who spoke with SaharaReporters, expressed great dissatisfaction with the order for return of the vehicles.

These sources wondered why Akeredolu would abruptly call for the return of vehicles that were given to them as gifts…

When SaharaReporters contacted Alhaji Yusuf Sanya Isiaka, the Senior Special Adviser on Political Matters to the Governor, he said the vehicles were not really "gifts" but were only given out to aid campaigns.

"What the Governor did was to give those buses for campaign purposes; it was not a gift," he said.

"It was just to aid their campaign programme during the electioneering period, and the arrangment was that after the election, it should be return. So, that was the arrangment between them and the MHAs (members of the House of Assembly).

"So, they were aware... before these buses were handed over to them, they were all told that they would return them after campaign. And they have actually complied. If it was a gift, nobody would comply. it was not a gift."