We are guilty, APC admits

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has finally admitted guilt over non-payment of advertisement monies running into millions of naira owed various media outfits in the country.

Recall that some of the adverts were meant to congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Spokesman of the party, Malam Bolaji Abdullahi who bared his mind on the issue in an interview on a national Television Wednesday, however, said the party would not have been so indebted if it was not cajoled by journalists assigned to cover the party.

According to him: “I think we have started paying. The last time I checked, I think we have started paying. Maybe if we were doing things the way the other party (PDP) did, using government money to fund the party, it is possible we won’t even have all these. But we have started paying.

“The issue is this. Let me admit that it is wrong for us not to have paid for those adverts within the period that they were not paid. Some of these things were backlog from the last two years or so. But we do not have problems with salaries of staff. You see, people just exaggerate some of these things.

“Then, another thing is this; I am a journalist, I understand how this works. When something happens, they keep calling me ‘Oga, won’t you place advert?’. But I bear in mind that we have not paid for some and I say, ‘no, let us just write a letter to congratulate the person celebrating’, they would say, ‘no, Oga don’t worry, just place the advert’.

“I remember one that I said we were not going to pay, but they went and waylaid the chairman in one state and and they called me and said the chairman said we should place the advert.”

The APC last week came under attacks over its refusal to clear advertisement debts running into over N25 million owed some media houses including Blueprint.

Consequently, journalists covering activities of the party decided to embark on a massive protest at the national secretariat of the party to press for payments, having exhausted all other avenues to get the monies paid.

The‎ party is believed to have raked over N200 million from the sale of forms for the Edo and Ondo governorship primary elections as well as the forthcoming primary election in Anambra state.

Leave a Reply