Samuel Yohanna, Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Kaduna State, Samuel Yohanna, has alluded that all political parties rent crowds for rallies.  

Yohanna who is a former Assistant Organizing Secretary for the APC in Kaduna said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme on Thursday.

“We are thoroughbred politicians and we’ve been in this game for a very long time. We understand how this thing goes.

“There is no political party that does not hire crowds. It is just that the level each political party hires, sometimes 25 percent, sometimes 10 percent, sometimes 99 percent,”

Describing himself as a “pragmatic person” Yohanna alleged that the Peoples Democratic Party failed to fulfill its part of the bargain with “hired crowds” hence the disruption of the rally of PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in Kaduna on October 17, 2022.

“When they (hired crowds) found out that it was PDP’s usual way of deceit, they knew that this money was not going to come and the next thing is to vent their anger on innocent Nigerians that came there for appearance because as far as we are concerned in the APC, PDP is no match to us and 99% of the crow you saw there that day came there on an appearance,” he alleged.

However, a PDP chieftain, Mark Jacob, who spoke alongside Yohanna on the programme, debunked the APC chieftain’s claims, saying that the PDP has no money to hire crowds.

Jacob, who is the Chairman, Venue Committee for PDP Presidential Rally in Kaduna, said it is unfortunate that an official of the APC on national television admitted that the ruling party normally hires people to normally attend its functions.

“The PDP does not have that capacity. The sitting government goes to hire millions of people because they have sources of funding. The PDP in Kaduna has been out of government since 2015 and we don’t have a minister, we don’t have a commissioner that will give us money to hire a crowd,” he said.