A media report that the Media Sub-committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Convention Planning Committee led the Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, and co-chaired by Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture, spent a whopping amount of N800million, has been described as strange news and totally untrue.
According to a statement by presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, who was the Subcommittee Secretary, he said if that huge amount of money was spent on media work at the convention, they make bold to say that they were, and still are unaware of the what, who, when and how it was expended.
He said the Subcommittee, which he served as Secretary got the total sum of N100million only.
He explained, "we thank the Governor for giving us venue, tea and coffee. We submitted a budget of about N360 Million. When the Finance Subcommittee told that even the N100 paid us was in excess of our budgetary allocation, we scrambled backwards, canceling commitments duly entered into for billboards, production of documentaries, lamp pole ads and so many other things. Some we could cancel, others were irreversible.
"On the assurances given by our leaders, we negotiated a token of commitment to TV networks for Live Coverage, with everyone agreeing that was a must-do for the convention.
"At the very end, we could only pay half of that amount to each of the stations, hoping that the leadership of the party will take responsibility for the payment of the balances due as a matter of honor.
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"The expenses sheet accounting for the N100 Million and the detailed report of the work by the Subcommittee has since been sent to the Party and shared with the committee leaders and its membership."
In the course of doing the work, Shehu said all payments to third parties were done by a committee member in the presence of at least two other members, adding that this was in a bid to rise above scandal.
"In view of the astonishing revelation of the money allegedly spent by our committee in this report, we strongly suspect that our account, rendered to the party, detailing out every of our expenses may have been the trigger for the ongoing investigation and the reported suspensions.
"Whatever be the case, we are absolutely in support in the ongoing probe into the convention finances.
"To convince anyone that the party is ready to continue with the cleansing of the nation being carried out by the Muhammadu Buhari administration, it must first cleanse it own house.
"On this, we stand with Governor Abdullahi Adamu, the new Chairman as he carries out this exercise. Nothing should be hidden under the carpet," he added.
