Kaduna Denies Releasing ₦2.3tn for Tinubu Campaign Rally, Calls Letter Fake

The Kaduna State Government has denied approving or releasing ₦2.3 trillion for the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaign flag-off in the state, describing a letter circulating on social media as fabricated.

The state Commissioner for Information and Culture, Ahmed Maiyaki, made the declaration in a statement dated October 24, 2026, in which he said Governor Uba Sani neither authored nor authorised the purported correspondence.

The disputed letter, dated October 18 and titled “Notification for Preparations for the Grand Rally Flag Off”, allegedly indicated that the governor had approved the money for the APC’s 2027 presidential campaign rally scheduled for Saturday, October 24, in Kaduna.

According to Maiyaki, the document was purportedly addressed to Senator Abdulaziz Yari, identified as Director-General of the APC Presidential Campaign Council.

The commissioner questioned the document’s authenticity, citing the spelling of the governor’s surname as “Uba Sai” and what he described as the unauthorised reproduction of the governor’s signature.

He also pointed to the state’s 2026 budget of ₦985.92 billion, arguing that the alleged ₦2.3 trillion expenditure was more than twice the state’s annual budget.

“The Kaduna State Government categorically disowns this document. Governor Uba Sani neither authored nor authorised the purported letter, and no ₦2.3 trillion was budgeted, approved or released for the presidential campaign flag-off,” Maiyaki said.

The government said the allegation was unsupported by authentic appropriation, approval or expenditure records.

Maiyaki disclosed that steps were being taken to establish the origin of the document. He also called on security and investigative agencies to examine it and determine whether any offences involving forgery or impersonation had been committed.

APC accuses Atiku, ADC

The dispute has also drawn the APC Presidential Campaign Council into a separate political controversy.

The council’s spokesperson, Dele Alake, accused former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the African Democratic Congress of attempting to discredit the ruling party’s campaign flag-off through fabricated documents, manipulated images and artificial intelligence-generated content.

Alake included the disputed ₦2.3 trillion letter among the materials he alleged were being used to undermine the campaign.

The allegation against Atiku and the ADC remains a claim by the APC. The materials examined for this report did not establish who created the letter or independently substantiate the council’s accusation.

The ADC subsequently challenged the APC to provide evidence linking the opposition party or Atiku to the alleged fabrication.

Phrank Shaibu, Director of Strategic Communication of the ADC Presidential Campaign Council, said the APC had not provided evidence to support its accusation.

The competing statements have left two distinct questions at the centre of the controversy: whether the purported letter is authentic and who was responsible for producing or circulating it.

The Kaduna State Government has called for an investigation, but no forensic findings or identification of a suspect were available in the sources examined for this report.