All the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who boycotted the just concluded Local Government election in Ogun State have been rewarded with N72,200,000 by the leadership of the party.
The National Working Committee (NWC) backed PDP had withdrawn from the July 24 council poll after the State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC) handed over candidates’ forms to another faction led by Leke Shittu.
The party Chairman, Sikirullahi Ogundele, in announcing the withdrawal, accused the electoral body of creating a “non existent faction” in order to shut PDP out of the poll.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) swept all the 20 chairmanship and 236 councillors seats in the council poll.
However, the leader and financier of the PDP in the state, Hon Oladipupo Adebutu met with the candidates and other stakeholders on Tuesday in Abeokuta, where he announced cash rewards for all the candidates.
Adebutu, who was a governorship aspirant in 2019, said the rewards were meant to cushion the financial loss of the candidates.
He announced N1,000,000 for each of 20 Chairmanship candidates; N250,000 for their running mates, while each of the councillorship candidates in all the 236 wards, will get N200,000.
Adebutu, a former member of House of Representatives, noted that the PDP’s withdrawal from the poll led to apathy during the election.
“Our candidates, you all won. You came out to campaign, but you were denied participation in the election. You asked people not to come out for the election, and they heeded to the call.
“You have all won,” he declared.
He accused the APC led government of intercepting the LG allocations “at will”, hence, the resistance to opposition during the LG poll.
Responding, the chairmanship candidate for Sagamu LG, Dare Bello applauded the PDP leaders for the reward and promised the candidates commitment to build a formidable PDP ahead of 2023 elections.
