The campaign secretariat of the APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has remained moribund and under lock for two weeks after he was misled by Governor Simon Lalong, into hosting the flag off of his presidential campaign for the 2023 elections in Jos.
It will be recalled that an old-fashioned colonial building in the GRA part of Jos that used to house a judge in the State judiciary, was readily converted and made available to the BAT Campaign Organization, and was renovated and upgraded with enabling facilities overnight just before the flag-off event.
Located in the elite part of Jos, along the old Ibrahim Taiwo Road, now DB Zang Road, the secretariat building was recovered from dereliction and weathering using fully mobilized labour that worked day and night for six days
When our correspondent visited the secretariat, it was discovered that immediately after the flag-off, the secretariat has been abandoned, with neither office staff nor security to man the vicinity.
With not even birds chirping around, it could not be confirmed whether the secretariat has any staff and whether any activities have taken place thereafter Tinubu and hired crowds mostly from Borno, Kano, Kaduna, and Gombe States, that filled up the Rwang Pam Township Stadium during the flag off exercise departed Jos that day with varying anger over shared monies.
However, the gates were securely locked, and not even 30 minutes of hibernation around could attract some interrogation or security accost from anywhere nearby.
With about N2 billion allegedly invested in the event by the presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, an APC stalwart in Jos told our correspondent on Tuesday, that a lot of issues arising from the hosting of the event in Jos have remained unresolved as the contracts for supplies and provision of allied logistics were cornered by those close to the Governor and the echelon of the Local Organizing Committee.
“Let me tell you, that event was done more to milk Tinubu than to really get him to win the election. A lot of them do not even believe Tinubu will make it. Contracts for the supplies of foods, drinks, and other souvenirs were shared among a few privileged persons before other stakeholders could arrive”, an APC bigwig from Plateau Central said.
Speaking further, he said that the crowd at the Stadium during the event was not from Plateau because Plateau people do not believe in APC or Tinubu, noting that the crowd in the Stadium was a synthesis of hired groups from neighbouring states.
As a matter of fact, he said, Tinubu was made to “believe the myth that anytime a party flags off its presidential campaign in Jos, it will go all the way to win the presidential election. But, you and I know the times are different now and that cannot work this time.”
He said because the whole exercise was faked and because not even the members of the Local Organizing Committee believe in the project, “you cannot expect the secretariat to be functional. The real motive is to make money from Tinubu, and abandon him to his woes thereafter”.
The State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Silvanus Namang, who was a member of the 40-man LOC, could not be reached as his mobile telephone continually indicated “cannot be reached at the moment”.