By Olusegun Lawrence The director of Contact and Mobilisation of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organisation, Prof Jerry Gana, has said that the N21.8 billion donation recently received at a fund-raising event in Abuja, was not meant for the presidential campaign of President Goodluck Jonathan alone.
Prompt News recalls that businessmen, party chieftains and State Governors donated generously at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) fundraiser held at the Banquet Hall of the State House late last year.
A former Minister of Information, Gana, who also chaired the fund-raising committee clarified that the N10 billion needed to complete the permanent national secretariat of the PDP will be taken from theN21.8 billion.
Gana spoke on Monday when he visited the permanent PDP national secretariat site still under construction at the Central Business Area, Abuja.
He said, “This administration of the party under our able chairman resolved that we must complete this project so that we can move there and so, part of the preparations for this year’s campaign is for us to raise funds and I had the honour of leading a very distinguished team of Nigerians to prepare for the fund raising.
“We raised about N21 billion on that day and the purpose of this press conference is to say that right from the start, we were raising money for the PDP and the project of the party, the documents and letters said so, the speeches confirmed it and during the day of the fund raising, in my own speech and the speech of the Vice President who happens to be an architect, there was a specific focus on this building, that this is one project we want to complete.
“The Vice-President being an architect gave graphic details of where we were on this project and how we desire to be, therefore, the central aim of the fund-raising is to empower the party to complete this building and other projects.
“The second is of course, to empower the party to campaign for its candidates, not for the President alone but for others. The Presidential candidate has the right to raise fund for his campaign quietly.
“I am not the chairman of that fund raising team but I am sure the president will appoint somebody and I am sure they are already working hard and being a humble Nigerian, he wants to do it quietly and people will donate people who believe in his victory as the candidate of the PDP.
“So, we want to make it clear that the money raised was for the PDP and a substantial part of it will be for the completion of this building.
“As already noted, we need over N10billion to conclude it and so, even if we raise and we hope that we are going to raise more, half of the money is already going to be for the building and other projects.
“So, we want to lay to rest all the permutations and the discussions and all what is going on in the media about us raising more than the law allows for our candidate, that is not the correct position.
“We set out to raise funds for PDP project and the committee worked so hard and we succeeded. The committee did much more than we expected.”
Prompt News recalls that the huge sum raised for 2015 presidential campaign of President Jonathan has received condemnation from the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) and other stakeholders.
