*Says allegations must be thoroughly probed
*Abure defends self, denies Edo guber bid
Chuks Okocha, Kingsley Nwezeh, Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos
National leader of the Labour Party and presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general poll, Peter Obi, yesterday, promised that the party would appoint a reputable audit firm to deal with the corruption charge against the National Chairman, Julius Abure, by the National Treasurer, Ms. Oluchi Oparah.
Obi, who spoke at a media briefing, where he rendered account of the 2023 Obi-Datti Presidential campaign organisation funding, said the allegations and counter-allegations must be thoroughly investigated.
But Abure has also come out to dismiss the allegations of corruption against him, even as he denied alleged governorship ambition in Edo State.
The National Working Committee (NWC) of the LP had Wednesday, at news conference, slammed a six-month suspension on Oparah, who raised the corruption alarm.
But Oparah, has said she would challenge the suspension in court, as the NWC’s action was premeditated, especially that those who took the decision did, when they knew she was not in Abuja to meet the less than 12-hour deadline to appear before a panel, after allegedly removing her from the group’s WhatsApp platform.
This was sequel to her allegation on Monday, that Abure had mismanaged N3.5bn raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities in the build-up to the 2023 general election.
However, Obi, while speaking, said, “For the party, 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 part.
“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 to do.”
Obi 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.
This, he said was “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.”
Also speaking at the event, Mrs Aisha Yesufu, Chairman of the Fundraising Team of the Campaign Organisation, said it spent over N744,500,000.00 in litigation in courts over the 2023 presidential election.
She also said it received donations totaling N595,976,994.00.
“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 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,” Yesufu said.
Meanwhile, Abure, speaking for the first time on the allegation by Oparah presented copies of cheques he said were signed by her accuser as recent as last December.
In an interview on Arise News Television, Abure said he “had never stopped Oluchi Oparah from carrying out her duties,” and went on to list her duties, including receiving of money and signing of cheques.
He said as a result of the electronic payment, funds meant for the party were automatically transferred to the party’s account.
Although quiet on the allegation that Oparah did not receive alerts into the bank’s accounts, Abure said between July and December last year, he and Oparah signed several cheques paid out by the party.
Countering claims that she was not a party to the party’s financial affairs, Abure said ahead of the preparation of the annual accounts, the party “wrote to the banks to avail our statements to her when we wanted to compile our statement.”
On the allegations bordering on misappropriation of N3.5 billion, Abure said the total receipts into the party in the period was N1.3 billion besides another N700 million that was received by the campaign.
“Total summary of the money that entered into the party was N1.3 billion. We also got N700m for the campaign. I want to challenge her to make the records available where she got the sum of N3.5 billion.
Abure used the opportunity to debunk insinuations of his plan to contest in the forthcoming primaries in Edo State.
“I am not interested in contesting and the process must be transparent. I will ensure working and acting with my colleagues that the process must be free, fair and credible,” he said.
