Presidential Candidate of Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has demanded a thorough investigation of alleged financial impropriety against the National Chairman of Barrister Julius Abure.
Obi made the call at a media briefing where he rendered 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 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 yo do,” Obi said.
Daily Trust reports that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the LP 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 that those who took the action when they 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 had, 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 election.
Also, on Tuesday while speaking on Arise TV’s ‘Good Morning Show’, Oparah also claimed that the Abure-led NWC is working hand-in-hand with the Edo State Government which is governed by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
However, at the Wednesday media briefing, the National Publicity Secretary of LP, Mr 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 after she failed to honour an invitation by the party’s NWC to resolve the crisis.
At the Thursday’s briefing, Obi also appeal 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.
He said, “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.”
