Consensus: Buhari didn’t order fee refunds to aspirants – Akume

Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs, Senator George Akume, has said that President Muhammadu Buhari did not give any directive for the refunds of money paid  by aspirants for the expression of interest and nomination forms.

There are reports that the President had directed that aspirants who would step down at the March 26 national convention of the party held at the Eagle Square in Abuja, should be refunded the money they spent on forms. 

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But addressing newsmen at the APC national secretariat in Abuja, after a closed-door meeting with the party’s national chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, Akume, who led a delegation of Benue APC stakeholders to the secretariat said Buhari didn’t say anything of such, adding that the N20 million he used for the purchase of forms was a donation to the party.

Akume was one of the contenders for the office of national chairman. The party had pegged N20 million for expression of interest and nomination forms for that slot.

“The issue of directives did not occur whatsoever in our dinner with Mr President. We ate the dinner with him and he appealed to us to build the consensus as much as we could and that was basically what we did,” he said.