A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Sunny Moniedafe, has decided to take the party’s leadership to court over the non-refund of his expression of interest and nomination form fees.
In an exclusive interview, Moniedafe confirmed the news and explained that he had to resort to the legal route due to unforeseen circumstances.
As many would recall, the controversy surrounding the APC’s national convention in March 2022 led to the directive from former President Muhammadu Buhari to refund the nomination fees of aspirants who agreed to step down for the then-National Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, and other members of the National Working Committee.
However, despite this directive, the APC leadership has refused to reimburse these aspirants. It was reported that Moniedafe, among others, had explored all available options to get his money back, including writing to the party’s leadership and meeting with its officials, but to no avail.
In his recent letter to the party, Moniedafe lamented, “We have written, visited, and pleaded with the party’s current leadership, even going so far as to accompany Adebayo Shittu and other chieftains to plead with them in person. But the situation remains unchanged.”
This has prompted Moniedafe to take legal action, as he feels the situation is no longer sustainable and he needs to expose the party’s position to the public. He hopes that the court will facilitate a fair resolution to his case.
A number of other aspirants have also shared similar concerns, stating that they have exhausted all available avenues to recover their funds, which ranged from ₦20 million to ₦25 million, depending on the category of expression of interest and nomination forms they purchased.
The APC had generated over ₦700 million from these aspirants, with an additional ₦3 billion from various stakeholders and party members ahead of the presidential primary.
In one of the letters, the 107 signatories, including Moniedafe, accused the party of excluding them from active participation and assignments during the last party primary elections.
Responding to the development, the APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, assured that the matter has received attention and will be resolved soon.
