Presidential Candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, on Thursday, demanded a thorough investigation of alleged financial impropriety against the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure.
Obi spoke at a press conference where he accounted for the 2023 Obi-Datti Presidential campaign organisation funding.
According to him, “For the party (LP), I am a member of the party and they have chosen to say that I am the leader. What we need to do in the party and I have discussed it with the leadership is that we must now appoint a reputable audit firm to audit and be able to deal with the account of the party.
“When I am involved in money, it must be transparent. So, the allegations and counter allegations now must be thoroughly investigated and verified and we would reconcile it and know what exactly you do.”
Recently, the National Working Committee of the LP imposed a six-month suspension on its embattled National Treasurer, Mrs. Oluchi Oparah.
The party’s NWC announced her suspension during a press conference at the party secretariat on Wednesday in Abuja.
But Oparah vowed to challenge the suspension in court, saying the NWC’s action was premeditated, especially that those who took the action when they knew she was not in Abuja to meet the less than 12-hour deadline to appear before a panel after removing her from the group’s WhatsApp platform.
On Monday, Oparah had accused the LP National Chairman, Abure, of mismanaging N3.5bn raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities in the run-up to the 2023 general elections.
Oparah, on Tuesday while speaking on Arise TV’s ‘Good Morning Show’, also accused the Abure-led NWC of working hand-in-hand with the Edo State Government which is governed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party.
But during Wednesday’s media briefing, LP National Publicity Secretary, Mr Obiora Ifoh, described Oparah as a mole being used by dissidents to cause disaffection in the party.
Ifoh explained that the party decided to sanction Oparah after she failed to honour an invitation by the party’s NWC to resolve the crisis.
Obi, at the Thursday’s briefing, also appealed to various support groups or individuals or parties that received funding to support the campaign, for which they were grateful, to account to those they received it from.
The LP presidential flagbearer said, “Because there are some people, like support groups, there are some people even abroad who collected monies that they are going to use it in the north and everywhere. We were not stringent that everything you collect must come to us, but we want whatever is collected to be accounted for. This is why we are appealing to the public to let us know.”
We spent N744.5m on litigation, received N595.9m from Nigerians – Aisha Yesufu
Also speaking at the press conference, Chairman of the Fundraising Team of the Campaign Organisation, Mrs Aisha Yesufu, said it spent over N744,500,000.00 in litigation in courts over the 2023 presidential election.
Yesufu also said that the party received donations totaling N595,976,994.00.
She said, “Accountability and transparency are very critical and important; that is why we asked people to donate so that we could come back to them to explain how their money was judiciously used. We thank everyone who donated in cash and kindness. From the donations from citizens, we received N595,976,994. This is the money we raised from the four accounts that we have talked about. We also received N8,000,000 from the candidate himself (Peter Obi).
“We designed a strategic blueprint focused on channeling the movement energy and support for Peter Obi and Datti Ahmed with different support groups. We provided direct and indirect support to over a hundred support groups across all 36 states in Nigeria.
“We also deployed media-related campaigns that reached over 11 million people, leveraging over 40 radio stations, community outreach, and social media.
“We would have loved to use Televisions and all of that, but because of our financial constraints, we were mindful of being judicious in our usage of the funds that we received.
“So, out of these things, campaign materials worth N258,374,330.00 were procured and distributed across the 36 States and also in Abuja. Media and radio broadcasting was at the cost of N16,432,867.00.
“For the election promotion expenses, we had N10,808,948.00. For Polling Unit Agents, we spent N324,381,700.00. And then, of course, we had bank charges of N1,750,544.00.
“We also had administrative charges of N477,000.00. We deployed N744,500,000.00 to cover legal expenses. And then, in campaign and election activities, we had over N28,500,000.00. On the issue of legal fees, remember what I said earlier: We had N800,000,000.00 that the candidate himself brought.”