According to him, the funds given to the delegates were for logistics.
The lawmaker representing Kwara Central district, Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe, says he gave out cash to delegates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the party’s primaries.
Oloriegbe stated this during his appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Wednesday.
According to him, the funds given to the delegates were for logistics.
Oloriegbe had during the exercise held in May lost his bid to return to the Senate to Malam Saliu Mustaphato.
Faulting the process through which primaries were conducted in most states, the senator accused the governors of imposing delegates on party supporters.
He added that some delegates he gave funds for “logistics” during the exercise refunded the money.
“There was no congress; like in my state, the governor just handpicked them (the delegates) one night and said we have done primaries and the list came. So, you don’t even know who the delegates are … and this happened in several states,” he said.
“Even where people are selected, they should be given the freedom to exercise their franchise by voting for who they want, but it was not like that. The governors selected those to whom they would give instructions and some of them took an oath to vote where the governors direct them and this was what happened in Kwara State.
“In my own election (primary), 17 delegates came back to give me money which I gave them for logistics; others did not because they said ‘we wanted to vote for you, but we are not allowed to vote’. There was one of my colleagues in Kogi who mentioned that people came back (to return his money).”
In 2019, former Senate President, Bukola Saraki lost his bid for reelection into the Senate from Kwara Central on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party to Oloriegbe.
He had a total of 123,808 votes to defeat the former Senate President who polled 68,994 votes in the four local governments of Kwara Central Senatorial District.