The Labour Party, LP, National Chairman, Julius Abure, has said Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo, managed the party’s campaign funds in 2023.
Abure said Yesufu and Ighodalo were signatories to LP 2023 campaign funds and not the party as widely speculated.
The embattled LP National Chairman spoke at a press conference after the party’s National Executive Committee meeting in Abuja on Monday.
He dismissed claims of LP mismanaging its funds.
According to Abure: “The party was never involved in the distribution of those resources. Our interest was to see how we could produce a president for the party. How it was done was not our concern.
“Hence, we gave them free rein. We allowed them to entrust their resources to whomever they wanted. We followed them loyally by allowing them to administer the campaign funds.
“Regarding donations, the party was not involved in collecting any campaign donations; they were channelled to accounts opened for campaign purposes, with Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo as the signatories.
“They were also responsible for payments to polling unit agents. The party did not handle the payments to the agents.”
It could be recalled that the LP presidential candidate in 2023, Peter Obi, had in February assured that the party will give a transparent account of funds realised during the campaign process.
This followed the crisis that rocked the party over sales of forms and other fundraising activities for the 2023 general elections in the country.
LP’s National Treasurer, Oluchi Opara, had at the time asked the party’s National Chairman, Julius Abure, to account for the N3.5 billion raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities in the build-up to the 2023 general elections.
In response, Obi said as the leader of the party, he will ensure that the LP hires a reputable audit firm to audit the finances of the party.
He said the allegations and counter-allegations in the party must be thoroughly investigated and reconciled.
“I have told everybody that whatever we receive directly or indirectly will be accounted for transparently.
“What we need to do in the party as I have discussed with the leadership is that we must now appoint a reputable audit firm to audit and be able to deal with the accounting of the party.
“When I am involved anywhere money is, it must be transparently utilised. So there is the allegation and counter-allegation now that must be thoroughly investigated and verified. We will reconcile it and know exactly what we are doing.
“What we are doing here is accounting for the campaign. I am using the opportunity also to appeal to various support groups or individuals and parties that received some form of funding to support what we are doing which we are very grateful,” he stated.
Also, the Obi/Baba-Ahmed Presidential Campaign Organisation disclosed that it spent over N744,500,000 in litigation in courts over the 2023 presidential election.
The Chairman of the Fundraising Team of the Campaign Organisation, Aisha Yesufu, said that the party also received donations totalling N595,976,994 from Nigerians.
“We thank everyone who donated in cash and kind. 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),” she said.
