The All Progressives Congress (APC) is contending with a substantial financial challenge, as its National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje, disclosed that the party inherited a debt of N8.9 billion.
Ganduje made this revelation during the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Abuja, where he detailed the financial liabilities primarily linked to extensive legal engagements.
He stated that upon assuming office, the National Working Committee (NWC) was confronted with outstanding debts and legal obligations amounting to N8,987,874,663, largely attributed to costs incurred from pre-election legal disputes, election petitions, and various appeals.
“The current NWC inherited debts and legal liabilities to the total tune of N8,987,874,663, arising from various legal engagements,” Ganduje noted.
The NEC meeting had in attendance key figures, including President Bola Tinubu, Vice President Kashim Shettima, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, House Speaker Tajudeen Abbas, several state governors, and other party stakeholders.
Reacting to the financial disclosure, Osita Okechukwu, a founding member of the APC and former Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria, shed light on the reasons behind the party’s financial strain.
During an interview on Arise Television’s Morning Show, Okechukwu attributed the debt crisis to prolonged legal battles and a disrupted membership registration drive.
“On why we accumulated debts, that’s very simple. From day one, this same President Tinubu established a biometric registration center in Lagos,” he stated.
Okechukwu recalled that in 2013, while Bola Tinubu was leading the party, the APC launched a biometric membership registration initiative. However, he alleged that the project was abruptly halted when the then-President Goodluck Jonathan directed the Department of State Services (DSS) to shut it down.
“We were only able to conduct the biometric registration in Anambra in 2013 before the government at the time intervened,” he said. “When this information got to then-President Jonathan, he instructed the DSS to close it down.”
According to him, the suspension of the initiative disrupted APC’s plan to establish a seamless membership contribution system, which could have helped sustain the party financially.
“If that system had remained in place, members would have been contributing, and we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this situation,” he explained.
Okechukwu also pointed to unpaid legal fees as a major factor in the accumulated debt. He contrasted APC’s approach to that of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), stating that while the PDP allegedly imposed levies on ministers during its administration, APC refrained from such financial practices.
“The debt came from outstanding legal fees. We didn’t do what the PDP used to do while in power; they were taxing ministers. We don’t have money,” Okechukwu remarked.
