Edo Governor Admits President Tinubu Is Releasing Federal Money for Election

Edo State Governor Monday Okpebholo has sparked a new round of debate after openly stating that President Bola Tinubu is “releasing money” to state governors, a comment widely interpreted as an admission that federal funds are being strategically deployed to secure votes ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

During a tense interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today anchored by Seun Okinbaloye, Okpebholo was pressed on his earlier boast that he would deliver 2.5 million votes from Edo State to President Tinubu in 2027. When Okinbaloye reminded him that Peter Obi had convincingly defeated Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election in Edo by a margin of 331,163 votes to 144,471, with total accredited voters barely crossing 600,000, the governor dismissed the question. His response was telling.

This time will be different, Okpebholo said. It is because of the work we are doing and the money Tinubu is releasing to us.

The governor did not stop there. He elaborated on the transactional nature of the support he is mobilizing for the President. “Because of the work we are doing, because of the money Tinubu is releasing to us to work for him and that is what you are seeing on the street,” Okpebholo declared, insisting that the President should “relax and come to Edo to commission projects, not to campaign, as the state is sure and settled for APC.”

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Reality immediately challenges the governor’s arithmetic. In the 2023 presidential election, Edo State recorded a total of 600,395 votes cast. The combined votes for all candidates, including Peter Obi’s 331,163 and Tinubu’s 144,471, did not even reach 700,000. For Okpebholo to now promise 2.5 million votes, he would need to more than triple the state’s entire voter turnout from the previous election and exceed the total number of registered voters in Edo, which stood at just over 2.5 million in 2023. Okpebholo himself struggled to secure just 291,667 votes in the September 2024 governorship election, a contest where he was the APC candidate and enjoyed the full backing of the party’s federal machinery.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was quick to call out the governor’s boast. The Edo State chapter of the PDP issued a statement accusing Okpebholo of sycophancy, noting that “How many votes did Okpebholo and the APC muster in the Edo governorship election? Just 291,000 votes. Now, with a straight face, he wants Nigerians to believe he can mobilise 2.5 million votes for President Tinubu in 2027.” The PDP went further, describing the claim as “an outright insult to the intelligence of Edo people” and “clearly aimed at pleasing his Abuja benefactors.”

Okpebholo is not the first APC governor to tie federal funding directly to electoral returns. In March 2026, Katsina State Governor Dikko Radda similarly assured that President Tinubu “has been releasing funds to the LGs” and that this financial flow alone would guarantee the President’s re-election across the states. Radda told a gathering in Katsina that “since the president assumed office, he has been releasing funds to the LGs to enable them to move their respective areas forward,” adding that “people of Katsina are happy with what we have been doing. But they are doing that because of the funds he (Tinubu) has been releasing to the states and the LGs.”

When a governor openly admits that federal money is being channeled to states as a tool for political mobilization, the line between legitimate federal spending and election bribery becomes dangerously blurred. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has in recent months pursued cases against former officials for funneling public money into election campaigns, including the ongoing trial of former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele over a $6.23 million payment for foreign election observers. Yet here is a sitting governor publicly stating that the President is “releasing money to us to work for him,” a phrase that functions as both a boast and a confession.

With the 2027 election cycle already heating up, Nigerians are left with a troubling question. If state governors themselves admit that federal funds are being strategically deployed to secure votes, what remains of the electoral process beyond a transaction between Abuja and the state houses? The answer, for now, seems to be blowing in the wind of Okpebholo’s own words. The money is being released. And the voter is expected to fall in line.

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