By Rotimi Ojomoyela Ado-Ekiti
Advanced Peoples Democratic Alliance (APDA) has cleared the air on the insinuations making the rounds that the party was being funded by former Vice President Abubakar Atiku and Senate President Bukola Saraki. National Chairman of the party, Malam Shitu Mohammed, who made the clarifi cation while unveiling the party in AdoEkiti, the Ekiti state capital, at the weekend, said the party was being fi nanced by “contributions by members from the wards, local governments, states and up to the federal levels, so that the people can take ownership of APDA rather than moneybags.” He appealed to Nigerians to embrace the party, he described as “a political movement and credible alternative” to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), having embedded the much touted restructuring in its manifesto, which the two main political parties have rejected.” Atiku and Saraki were being suspected to be strongest fi nanciers of the new political party, a platform they allegedly wanted to use to realize their rumoured presidential ambitions. “Vice President Atiku and Senator Saraki are not our fi nanciers; we got our funding from Nigerians, with whom the sovereignty lies. We have zero tolerance for corruption in APDA and if these prominent Nigerians wish to join us, we will absorb them,” he said.
