From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Former Labour Party (LP) presidential aspirant, Faduri Oluwadare Joseph, who is also the national leader of Rescue Movement for New Nigeria (RMNN) has raised the alarm over what he described as monumental corruption allegations currently bedevilling the party, saying the party may sink beyond rescue.
Joseph also noted that the allegation of misappropriation of the presidential campaign funds was equally weighing down the popularity of the party.
The observations made by Joseph are contained in a statement by the National Director, Media and Publicity of Rescue Movement for New Nigeria, Rev. Emmanuel Olorunmagba, which was issued in Jos, the Plateau State capital.
It would be recalled that the Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi, had said that an external auditor was contracted to examine the party’s finances.
In a press conference penultimate Thursday, Obi who was accompanied by Aisha Yesufu, a member of his 2023 campaign team, said he was not involved in the accounting of the party’s finances, adding that he is not a signatory to any of the party’s campaign accounts.
“I’m not involved in the party accounting. I’m not part of the party management. Even the campaign accounts, I’m not signatory to any or any groups’ accounts,” he said.
The National Treasurer of the LP, Oluchi Opara, had earlier on Monday accused the National Chairman of the party, Julius Abure, of misappropriating N3.5 billion belonging to the party.
She said the N3.5 billion was proceeds from sales of forms and fundraising activities in the build up to the 2023 elections.
Opara said she was compelled to raise the alarm because the “internal mechanisms” of the party failed to hold the party chairman to account.
However, the former Presidential Aspirant of LP, Joseph expressed worry that “the LP which Nigerians were looking up to rescue the country is now mired in monumental corruption allegations as well as financial misappropriation, obvious in the record on the presidential campaign funds released by Mr. Peter Obi. Thus, Labour Party now needs to be rescued.
“The issue of repeated financial mismanagement, embezzlement, forgery and other allegations on corruption against Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure, is so terrible and should not be swept under the carpet.
However, that will be a discussion for another day. But I will call on the appropriate government authority to carry out proper investigation into the monumental allegations and ensure justice is done.”
The activist spoke further: “We have been asking Mr. Peter Obi to give financial record of the election funds to Nigerians, especially as the chunk of the campaign funds was donated by Nigerians who laboured so much to make their money. It took repeated speaking out and lots of our press releases from our group before eventually the campaign financial record was released (after seven months of speaking out).
“Surprisingly, looking at the financial report objectively it is obvious that what was released to Nigerians can be best described as shameful and sham financial report clearly depicting mismanagement of kind-hearted donations from Nigerians.
“There are pertinent questions begging for answer such as how sensible is it that N744.5 million was claimed to have been spent for legal fees for the election petition tribunal when the amount said to have been spent on running the whole election is less than half of that?
“We are aware of some lawyers that offered services for Labour Party pro bono. How did what was spent on the presidential election petition amount to that? Nigerians need further and more detailed clarifications.
“Another claim that a whooping N324 million was spent on Polling Units Agents calls for serious investigation on the modalities of the disbursement of such amount of money, when majority of the polling agents did everything for free including buying their own refreshments from their personal pocket, and with so many polling units without Labour Party agents due to lack of funding released?
“In fact some of us sponsored polling units agents to different poling units, from our personal account just to cover up for the day of the election. Without gainsaying, the rigging of the election must have been made so easy and easily covered due to the obvious lapses of not having LP agents in many polling units across Nigeria.
“The total sum of N295,606,145.00 that was claimed to have been spent on campaign, what was it spent on, considering the different sacrifices Nigerians offered in support of the Labour Party Presidential Campaign, where despite the different huge sums of money donated, Nigerians still produced campaign material from their individual or combined contribution?
“We are all aware of the different campaign offices donated, making of billboards across the country, printing of posters, flyers, ballot specimen, T-shirts, face caps, wrist bands as well as production and airing of campaign jingles on radio and television; all from individual or combined contribution without demanding one kobo from Labour Party and/or the Presidential Campaign Council.
“All over the world we have not heard of any campaign where what was claimed to have been spent on court proceedings is more than double of what was said was spent on the entire campaign. If that is suppose to be government expenditures under the watch of Mr. Peter Obi can he ever agree to have appended his signature to such frivolous claim?”
“All of the above are clear manifestations of mismanagement of campaign funds sacrificially donated by kind-hearted Nigerians for the party.”