The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has demanded a thorough investigation of alleged financial impropriety against the National Chairman of the party, Barrister Julius Abure.
Obi made the call at a media briefing where he gave an account of the 2023 Obi-Datti presidential campaign organisation funding, on Thursday.
“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 will reconcile them and know what exactly to do,” Obi said.
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Daily Trust reports that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the LP has slammed a six-month suspension on its embattled National Treasurer, Mrs. Oluchi Oparah.
The LP NWC made the announcement during a press conference at the party secretariat on Wednesday in Abuja.
Oparah, however, told Daily Trust that she would challenge the suspension in court, as the NWC’s action was premeditated, especially since those who took the action 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.
She, on Monday, accused the LP National Chairman, Barrister Julius Abure, of mismanaging N3.5bn raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities in the build-up to the 2023 general elections.
However, at the Wednesday media briefing, the National Publicity Secretary of LP, Obiora Ifoh, described Oparah as a mole who was being used by dissidents to cause disaffection in the party.
He said the party decided to sanction her after she failed to honour an invitation by the NWC to resolve the crisis.
Speaking for the first time on the scandal at the Thursday briefing, Obi also appealed to various support groups or individuals or parties that received funding to support his campaign to account to those they received it from.
We spent N744.5m on litigation, received N595.9m from Nigerians – Aisha Yesufu
Also speaking at the event, Aisha Yesufu, the chairman of the fundraising team of the campaign organisation, said it spent over N744.5 million on litigations in courts over the 2023 presidential election.
She also said the team received donations totalling N595,976,994 and got N800million from Obi.
“We also deployed media-related campaigns that reached over 11 million people, leveraging over 40 radio stations, community outreach, and social media.
“So, out of these things, campaign materials worth N258,374,330 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. For Polling Unit Agents, we spent N324,381,700. And then, of course, we had bank charges of N1,750,544.
“We also had administrative charges of N477,000. We deployed N744,500,000 to cover legal expenses. And then, in campaign and election activities, we had over N28,500,000,” Yesufu said.
