‘We are all guilty of using government money for elections’ – Senator Musiliu Obanikoro

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro who was an ambassador and minister under PDP and at a time was the highest ranking politician from Lagos State in the last PDP government has since decamped to APC after he lost the last governorship elections in Lagos.

In a recent interview with Global Excellence, he narrated his subsequent ordeal in the hands of EFCC saying, ‘That matter is better left untouched. I will tell you why. For me, it is just politics.
Every one of us, APC, PDP, we are all guilty of using government money for elections. That is it. If we want to clean the system, let us clean it at once so that nobody uses government money again for elections. I did not benefit a kobo from the money. We were given money and we gave each state their due, we gave Governor Fayose, we gave others too. So, it’s not as if any money came to me. But people would rather play politics with everything than speak the truth of the matter. As I have said, few months ago, they passed the law that compels all political parties to advertise their donors. That is how you can clean up the system. If we say, okay we are the one in government, it is okay for us to use government money and it’s not okay for those who are not in government to do so, the system is not going to benefit anyone at the end of the day’.

He was asked about the money he said he gave Governor Fayose and the governor’s denial. Obanikoro said, ‘well, the system knows the truth. I don’t even want to join issues with him because we only got to know each other only when he became governor. But the authorities know what happened to the money, and they are pursuing it. That’s all I have to say’.