The Social Democratic Party has come to the defence its national leader, Chief Olu Falae, over the allegation that he collected N100m part of the $2.1bn allegedly diverted by former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd).

The National Publicity Secretary of SDP, Mr. Abdul-Hamed Isiaq, while speaking at the congress of the Oyo State chapter of the party in Ibadan on Saturday, said Falae collected the money from the Peoples Democratic Party on behalf of SDP because an alliance was formed by the two parties to support PDP presidential candidate, former president Goodluck Jonathan.

Isiaq stated that the money was meant for the campaign programme of SDP in support of PDP’s Jonathan.

He said, “SDP collected N100m from PDP and it is because SDP and PDP formed political alliance. The alliance stated that SDP would not feature a presidential candidate in the election.


 
“So, we supported PDP’s presidential candidate in the election. With that, N100m was distributed to all the state chapters of the SDP in the South-West, excluding Ogun State.

“Ogun State said they had enough; that we could give to other states. Our national chairman, Chief Falae, is a man of impeccable record and a man of transparency; you cannot find his name in any of such.”

Also, Oyo State governorship candidate of SDP in the 2015 election, Mr. Seyi Makinde, said state chapters of political parties got support from the national secretariat and it was difficult to know the source of such money.

According to him, the matter was being overblown.

Makinde said, “We receive support from the national secretariat of our party. There is no way for us to know where the support is coming from and it is normal for political parties to have the national secretariat give support to the state, then the state gives support to the local government.

“In all honesty, I think they’re making a mountain out of a molehill in this instance.”