*Yesufu: Campaign Received N595.9m
THERE appears no end in sight in the crises rocking the Labour Party (LP) over the N3.5billion fraud allegation, as its presidential candidate in last year’s general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, has called for a thorough probe by an independent auditor.
Obi, while reacting to the allegations against the embattled National Chairman, Mr. Julius Abure, by the now suspended National Treasurer, Mrs. Oluchi Oparah, at a press briefing in Abuja to render the account of the 2023 Obi-Datti presidential campaign organisation funding, demanded a thorough probe to ascertain if there was any financial impropriety.
He stated: “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 anywhere money, it must be transparent. So, the allegations and counter-allegations must be thoroughly investigated and verified, and we would reconcile it and know what exactly what we do.”
Oparah, however indicated that she would challenge the suspension in court,
Oparah has accused Abure of mismanaging N3.5billion raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities ahead the general election.
She was later suspended by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) for failing to appear before a disciplinary panel to substantiate her claims.
But insisted that the NWC’s action was premeditated, especially as those who took the action knew she was not in Abuja to meet the less than 12 hour deadline to appear before the panel, more so as she had been removed her from the official Whatsapp platform; hence could not know what was happening. has vowed to challenges her ouster in court.
Obi appealled 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, adding: “Because there are some people, like support groups, there are some people even abroad who collected monies that they were going to use 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.”
On her part, Mrs. Aisha Yesufu, who chaired the fundraising team of the campaign organisation, said the organisation received N595.9m from Nigerians and spent N744.5million on litigations on presidential election.
“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 100 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 and 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.
“We had a campaign crowd funding where Nigerians were asked to donate to the Obi/Datti campaign for the general elections. Today, we are having that campaign fundraising report presentation. Accountability and transparency is very critical and it is very important.
“At anytime we asked people to donate and they do willingly, it is very important to come back to them and show them how their monies were judiciously used.
“The mandate of the crowd fundraising team, given by Obi was to raise funding from Nigerians, using the campaign’s official account and to ensure funds are judiciously.”
