Dr Abdul Isaiq, National Publicity Secretary of the party, made the clarification on Monday in Abuja at a press conference. He said that prior to the 2015 presidential election, the party decided to go into alliance with any candidate and party that met its cardinal objective principles. He added that based on that decision, Chief Tony Anenih, the chairman of PDP Board of Trustees, approached the SDP to forge electoral alliance for the re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan. Isaiq explained that after due consideration, the SDP accepted to go into the alliance based on ‘certain cardinal objective principles’ since the party had no presidential candidate for the election. He said that based on the agreement, the PDP, through Anenih, contributed N100 million to the SDP/PDP electoral alliance project through the SDP National Chairman, Chief Olu Falae. He said that the money was disbursed and spent in a transparent manner for the purpose it was meant for. The SPD spokesman said that neither the SDP nor Falae was aware that Colonel Dasuki’s arms deal money was given to the party through Chief Anenih. He said: “The SDP as well as many Nigerians were aware of the fact that the PDP had a fund-raising event prior to the election where billions of naira were donated. “The SDP is also conscious of that fact that the PDP is capable of funding their part of electoral alliance with the SDP. We hereby affirm that neither the SDP nor Falae has anything to do with the $2.1 billion arms deal debacle. “Our alliance was not based on monetary inducement but six-points cardinal objectives principle which we believed could benefit the country at that crucial time,” he said. Also speaking at the conference, the National Vice Chairman of the SDP, Mr Adewole Adesina, said that the money that came to the party was from Anenih and not from Dasuki or the office of the NSA. “It is important for us to note that Chief Anenih himself who made the disclosure said that the money he disbursed was about N460 million. “What that means is that it is only him who can say precisely which portion of the arm deals came into the money. “It is possible that even the N100 million he gave to the SDP did not come from the arms deal. “So Chief Anenih himself must clarify; but as far as we are concerned, we have nothing to do with the arms deal money or the NSA’s office. Our alliance was strictly on political terrain,’’ he said.]]>