A former presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi has confirmed the appointment of an independent person to probe the allegations of mismanagement and embezzlement in the party.
Mr Obi said this in his press conference on Thursday where he explained that he had no control over the party’s finances contrary to speculations.
There have been several corruption allegations against the National Chairman of the party, Julius ABURE.
There are accusations that the party’s leadership is running its affairs without accountability.
For instance, the National Treasurer of the party, Mrs Oluchi Oparah, on Monday, called on Abure to render an account of party funds amounting to over N3.5billion.
The treasurer alleged that Abure prevented her from exercising her constitutionally assigned role of handling the party’s accounts.
Oparah also insisted that Abure should submit the party’s finances to a forensic audit and explain the source of funds used by him to acquire properties in Nigeria and overseas between 2022 and 2023.
Reacting, Obi said the party has commenced a process to audit the party’s finances for its activities related to the 2023 general elections.
He said, “I don’t think I waited too long. The election was conducted when – February last year. Thereafter, we went to the litigation which ended in November, so I couldn’t have been going to court and still be talking about Labour Party account. After ending that, it was in December when we started even from all the activities of being in campaign from 2022 and then till the end of 2023.
“We are just in the first quarter of 2024. I don’t think this has happened before with any party in Nigeria. Tell me one. In Nigeria, we’re used to blaming those who want to do the right thing and leaving those who have been doing the wrong things over the years.
“We are now accounting immediately within the first quarter of 2024. We just started the process. I could not have been calling auditors last year. We are not going to call them and everything.
“I’m not involved in the party accounting, I’m not part of the party management. If you know how a party functions, a party is being run by the elected executive of the party, National Working Committee, which I am not a signatory.
“Even the accounts campaign and anything, I am not a signatory to any. I am not a signatory to any group’s account. Everything is being managed. The money people gave me, I paid it to one account or the other, which is properly managed. And I assure you, we will account for everything. That is why we’re calling on every member of the public, locally and internationally who have lead to where these billions and millions were paid into, or even to paying somebody cash.
“People showed support to us more in kind than in cash because we have people who paid for logistics, transport and flights.
“For the Labour (Party) own, I have told how we are going to solve it, we are not going to solve it by saying ‘he said, she said’. We now have an independent person who would tell us which way forward.”
SaharaReporters reported on Wednesday that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the state had slammed a six-month suspension on Opara.
The suspension was announced on Wednesday at the party’s secretariat in Abuja during a press conference, following the Opara’s allegations against the National Chairman, Julius Abure.
