Ayu, NNPP, Yiaga Africa slam APC over presidential, gov’ship forms fees

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu, has asked the anti-corruption  agencies to investigate any All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential aspirant who buys the nomination and expression of interest forms for N100m.

Ayu, in a statement through his aide on Communication and Strategy, Simon Imobo-Tswam, also said with the exorbitant price of the forms, the party was still ready to inflict more pain on Nigerians.

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The chairman said, the “pegging of her (APC) nomination forms at N100m, N50m, N20m casts the ruling party in bad light.”

He said: “Nigerians can all see what the APC is: a fragmented alliance put together to capture power and inflict maximum pain on Nigerians, including their own members.

“Nigerians will recall how in 2014, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, now president and leader of the APC, told Nigerians that he had to borrow N27m to buy his nomination form. The same man, as leader of his party, has now sanctioned the sale of the same forms at N100m! I am told that’s an increase of 370 per cent.”

Similarly, the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) has condemned what it tagged “outrageous’’, nomination fees imposed on aspirants contesting various elective positions by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2023 general elections.

The NNPP National Publicity Secretary, Ambassador Agbo Major, said on Thursday in Abuja that the APCs action was unfair, unjust, despicable and insensitive to the plights and sufferings of Nigerians who have been impoverished by the outgoing government.

Also, Yiaga Africa has expressed concern over the high cost of nomination forms being charged by political parties in preparation for the 2023 general elections.

Executive Director of the organisation, Samson Itodo, on Thursday in a statement said the development is a huge disservice to teeming women, youth and persons with disabilities (PWDs) who nurse the ambition to run for elective office in next year’s general elections.