The All Progressives Congress has dismissed claims that the high costs of nomination and expression of interest forms will shut the door against ordinary Nigerians who aspires to contest for elective posts in the party.
A party source defended the nomination fees considered to be high and which was criticised severely in the social media.
The source said the decision was taken to make the APC financially independent and to prevent a situation where opposition parties might infiltrate the APC by buying forms for aspirants in order to cause disharmony.
A top official of the party said that the N100 million fee for the party’s presidential nomination will block outsiders from other parties from sponsoring unserious candidates to destabilise the APC.
“The decision to peg the nomination fee for presidential aspirants was deliberately taken to put the party on a sound financial footing so that it would not be exposed to manipulation of members.
“The party will still plough what is realised from the sales of forms back into the funding of the election. That is the only way for the party to raise funds. If the forms are cheap, opponents can easily sponsor their collaborators to destablise the process.
“All these were taken into consideration by the NEC,” the official explained.
Presidential aspirants are to pay N100 million for the expression of interest and nomination forms; N30 million is for expression of interest and N70 million for nomination form.
Anyone seeking governorship ticket will pay N50 million; N30 million for Senate and N20 million for House of Representatives.
Those aspiring for House of Assembly seats will buy the forms for N2 million.
