Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has called for a probe of the party’s national chairman, Barr Julius Abure, over the alleged squandering of N3 billion of the N3.5 billion raised for the 2023 general elections.
Obi said there must be investigation of the purported financial impropriety against Abure.
On Monday, the national treasurer of the LP, Mrs Oluchi Oparah, had accused Abure of misappropriating N3 billion of the N3.5 billion raised for the 2023 election campaigns, an allegation for which she was later suspended on Wednesday for not appearing before a disciplinary committee.
But Oparah told LEADERSHIP Friday that her suspension was premeditated since the invitation came Tuesday night for her to appear on Wednesday by 10am, and she was suspended by 12pm the same day after she missed her flight to Abuja.
Obi said yesterday in Abuja at a media briefing that the account of the 2023 Obi-Datti Presidential
Campaign Organisation funding must be investigated.
He said, “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 anywhere, money use must be transparent. So the allegations and counter allegations now must be thoroughly investigated and verified and we would reconcile it and know exactly what we do,” Obi said.
Obi-Datti Campaign Gives Account Of Election Spending
Also, one of the campaign council members, Aisha Yesufu, who was the chairman of the fundraising team, said that it spent over N744.5m on litigation in courts over the 2023 presidential election.
She also said the party received donations totaling N595,976,994 from Nigerians.
“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 N800,000,000 (N800m) 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.”
According to her, the campaign team would have loved to use televisions, but was limited due to financial constraints.
She went on: “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.
“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. We also had administrative charges of N477,000.00.
“We deployed N744,500,000 to cover legal expenses. And then, in campaign and election activities, we had over N28,500,000. On the issue of legal fees, remember what I said earlier: We had N800,000,000 that the candidate himself brought,” Yesufu said.
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