Fresh information has emerged that the campaign team of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu had opened a fundraising website to receive donations for its campaign for next year’s polls.
Best News Network reports that the Director of Media and Publicity for APC Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Bayo Onanuga, has confirmed the website’s existence, saying it was created by Tinubu’s campaign team.
The donation portal is reported to be named bat-ksm.com, containing profiles of both Tinubu and his running mate, Kashim Shettima, as well as campaign videos and updated press releases of events.
Onanuga in his response to the creation of the website told Punch that the website is a “futuristic project” and that is why it is still dormant.
He advanced that the site still remained inactive because it is yet to receive the approval of Tinubu and the APC at large.
Onanuga further explained that until the presidential candidate and the party gives consent, the website can’t be activated.
He added that the reason is because the Tinubu and the party need to agree that they want the public to donate funds towards the party’s campaign before it can be activated.
He said, “It has not been activated because the account details have not been uploaded. If you click the ‘Donate’ button on the site, you will discover that it has not been activated too.
“The website is dormancy state because the secretariat has not really agreed on whether they want donations from the public. It is only after such a decision is taken that we can put bank account details on the website. So it is there on the internet. It is futuristic.
“Number one, the candidate has to agree whether we should receive donations. The party has to also agree. Even if the party secretariat wants donations to be raised for the campaign, they will give us an account number.
“All those things you saw on the site are just futuristic buttons in case we need them. But as of now, it has not been activated yet.”
Following this development, reactions have trailed the APC’s decision, especially from some political parties like the Labour Party (LP) which is the pioneer of the fundraiser website.
The creation of the APC’s fundraiser website comes barely a month after the LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, created his own fundraising and campaign site to receive donations from willing Nigerians.
Obi’s media aide, Tai Emeka Obasi, who reacted to the development said it was obvious his principal had set the pace for other candidates to follow ahead of the 2023 presidential election.
Obasi, however, described the act by Tinubu’s campaign team as hypocrisy, adding that he cannot blame anybody.
