The All Progressives Congress (APC) said it was deeply saddened by the death of the its immediate-past national vice chairman (North Central), Alhaji Zakari Abdullahi Idde, who died in a fatal car crash.
At the meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) on Monday, a minute silence was observed in honour of the late Idde who was until his death, the Board Chairman of the Lower Niger River Basin Development Authority.
The NWC said it had sent a delegation to the family of the former national vice chairman to deliver the party’s condolences.
The ruling party said, “Late Alhaji Zakari Abdullahi Idde was a gentleman, grassroots politician and strong proponent of the APC’s progressive ideals who worked passionately for the unity and growth of our great party. He will be sorely missed.
“The Party expresses deep condolences to his immediate family, the government and people of Nasarawa State. We pray Almighty Allah grants the late Alhaji Zakari Idde al-Jannatul Firdausi.”
N90b or N40b FIRS 2019 Election Vote is Hogwash – APC
Meanwhile, the party also dismissed the allegation by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that the APC misused money taken from FIRS to finance its victory in the 2019 elections.
A statement by the national publicity secretary, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said the allegation was a hogwash.
“Regarding some media reports and a statement from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) alleging that a phantom N90 billion or N40 billion was released to the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) for the party’s 2019 election political campaigns, the allegation is hogwash.
The baseless allegations contained in the media reports and the subsequent statement by the PDP is an unintelligent and crude attempt at a smear campaign. Only the sponsors of the report believe their tales.
“We call on the sponsors of the baseless allegation to resolve their confusion. Last time it was N90 billion, now it is N40 billion. We also challenge them to provide evidence from not only FIRS but any other government agency where the APC took one kobo for campaign.
“The matter of dipping hands into public coffers as a matter of official policy ended with PDP. We recall that leaders of the PDP had contemplated changing the name of their party at a time because they were ashamed of their own record of sleaze.
“We however refer the PDP and co-peddlers of falsehood to the records of the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) in terms of Cost of Collection accruing to FIRS and indeed the FIRS statement on the subject matter.”
