TheCable

Chris Ngige, presidential hopeful and a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says before his party fixed the fee for the presidential nomination form, he had budgeted N50 million.

He said this on Thursday in an interview on Channels Television.

The APC had, on Wednesday after a meeting of its national executive committee (NEC), fixed N100 million for the presidential nomination form.

Although the cost has elicited varied reactions across social media platforms, Ngige, minister of labour, defended his party’s decision and said he would work with his supporters on raising the form fee.

“That’s what my party NEC fixed. Whether I’m happy with that or not, that is their own postulation. They have done their calculation; they have done their work. And Abdullahi Adamu, the chairman, is a very serious man if you know him well. He was my colleague in the governors’ forum and he was my colleague also in the seventh senate. He’s a very serious-minded person,” he said.

“For Adamu to say N100 million, he has seen certain things. I was a party official in PDP unfortunately and a NEC member, so I know the workings of a party. I’m not going to crucify them or say ‘crucify them’.

“Let me give you a critical example. After the selling of these forms, candidates emerge. When you tell them to contribute to the party, you won’t see them. That’s our experience in PDP, ACN, APC. And they have done the right thing to encourage the young ones that they have 50 percent discount. That’s magnanimous enough.

“That’s why you have people paying more for Bentley or Rolls Royce when there is 508. They all run on four tyres.

“I was budgeting N50 million — I and my supporters. But when the thing came out and it’s N100 million, they have started calling me. I have supporters, well-wishers. Don’t worry about me.”