An alleged cash-for-withdrawal operation has become the latest flashpoint in Nigeria’s intensifying 2027 political battle, with NDC chieftain Buba Galadima claiming that opposition candidates are being offered huge sums of money and luxury vehicles to abandon their tickets.
According to Galadima, the alleged offers are structured according to the political office being contested, with the claimed package rising from N50 million for state Assembly candidates to N2 billion for governorship candidates.
Speaking on Arise Television’s Prime Time, Galadima alleged that House of Representatives candidates who agree to step aside for APC candidates are being offered N200 million and a car.
For Senate candidates, he claimed the alleged offer rises to N500 million and a Jeep, while governorship candidates are allegedly being offered N2 billion and a Jeep to withdraw.
Galadima claimed that the alleged payments were not merely proposals, saying some candidates had already submitted resignation letters and collected money.
He also alleged that the operation was being coordinated from Abuja, naming a woman from Zamfara State whom he claimed was distributing money to politicians at a hotel in the capital.
Galadima further alleged that the woman had recently met APC National Chairman Nentawe Yilwatda and presented candidates who had allegedly agreed to surrender their tickets.
He claimed the alleged strategy was aimed particularly at opposition parties, including the NDC and African Democratic Congress, with the ultimate objective of allowing APC candidates to face little or no opposition in some constituencies.
The allegation comes roughly 100 days before the 2027 general elections, as parties intensify candidate mobilisation, defections and political realignments.
But Galadima’s claims remain unverified.
Pressed during the interview about evidence for the alleged payments, he acknowledged that he did not have documentary proof, saying he could be wrong but was relying on information available to him.
The allegations also involve named APC officials and a purported cash-distribution operation, but no independent evidence has so far established that such payments took place or that the APC leadership authorised them.
The APC and Yilwatda had not publicly responded to the latest allegations in the reports reviewed.
If substantiated, the claims would raise serious questions about the use of financial inducements to influence candidate participation and the competitiveness of the 2027 elections.
For now, however, the alleged N50 million-to-N2 billion “price list” remains Galadima’s claim, pending evidence or responses from those he accused.
