Following the defeat suffered by President Goodluck
Jonathan and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party,
during the March 28 and April 11 elections, the President
has asked the party and government officials, who handled
campaign funds, to refund unspent monies, or those not
judiciously expended, SUNDAY PUNCH can authoritatively
report.
Jonathan, credible sources said, has also set up a
committee of five to get those with the funds to return them.
Sources within the party and the government told our
correspondents that Jonathan was disturbed that despite
giving campaign coordinators, ministers, special advisers,
close aides and friends, support groups and traditional
rulers over N2tr in cash, most of them could not deliver
their polling booths and local governments.
The President was said to have been further irked by the
results of an investigation he ordered.
The probe showed that some coordinators used campaign
funds to buy very expensive properties, especially in Abuja,
and luxury cars.
Some of the funds have also been traced to the bank
accounts of senior party and government officials, who
were charged with the disbursement of funds to voters and
groups.
A reliable source in the Presidency told our correspondents
that one of the President’s men, who recently admitted to a
few close aides that it would be difficult to retrieve all the
funds, was bent on getting senior party and government
officials, who received funds to account for all monies
collected.
The source, who is a close associate of the President, said
monies given to traditional rulers in different parts of the
country, for example, would not be demanded, but added
that the President was determined to get his ministers,
close aides and special advisers to make refunds.
He said, “Some ministers did not get less than N20bn each.
None of them can deny it because this fact isn’t hidden
within government circles. The only problem with such
monies is that there is no receipt to show that they
collected money. The sad part is that almost all of them
performed woefully. Even in the states where the PDP won,
some ministers could not deliver 100,000 votes. They could
not mobilise their people to come out.
“The President is not happy. They all went on property and
car-shopping. This was the most expensive election in the
history of this country, yet there was no result.
“The sad part was that even after the President lost on
March 28, more money was given to all of them to make up
for the dismal outing by winning their states during the
April 11 elections. But that turned out to be a bad decision
because apart from losing the governorship election, we
didn’t perform well in the other elections.
“They must give an account of the money since they didn’t
use it for the election. The President is not particular about
the funds spent on genuine campaign needs like the hiring
of jets, advertisements and the rest that also cost billions of
naira. His focus is on the individuals that collected billions
to deliver their states but couldn’t even win their polling
booths.”
Our correspondents gathered that apart from the N20bn
given to some key ministers and senior special advisers,
especially in states where the PDP hoped to capture from
the opposition All Progressives Congress, some pro-
Jonathan support groups received about N16bn.
A former legislator, who was to print five million recharge
cards, T-shirts and baseball caps, has also come under
pressure to account for the billions she received because
only a few people got the items she was paid to produce.
Also, a top female politician in Lagos, who got a contract to
produce and supply thousands of mobile phones with pro-
Jonathan messages, was said to have produced just a few
and pocketed most of the funds.
It was learnt that the funds Jonathan released were
disbursed in three phases. Some were released before the
March 28 elections, others on the day of the presidential
election and more before the April 11 governorship and
state House of Assembly polls.
Already, the committee of five has started asking some of
the campaign coordinators and ministers, who received a
minimum of N20bn each, to give an account and also
refund residual funds where applicable.
However, our correspondents learnt that most of the people,
who received the funds had not cooperated with the
committee. While some have not been forthcoming, others
have simply ignored the committee.
Jonathan is said to be particularly focusing on the South-
West and northern states.
In Lagos, a popular PDP chieftain, who lost in his polling
booth, reportedly received $50m in cash a few days before
the governorship elections.
A senior PDP party member, who spoke to one of our
correspondents in Lagos over the weekend, confirmed the
cash splurge in Lagos.
The source said, “Lagos was a show of shame. A few days
to the governorship poll, about $150m was received in cash
by about five top campaign coordinators. But they failed
again, even more than we did in the presidential poll
because we lost some areas we won on March 28 to the
APC on April 11. They were to share this money to the local
governments and the masses.
“Please understand me, I am saying that the sum of $150m
was just for the governorship election in Lagos. We are not
talking about the sums they got for the presidential
election. Only one out of the five people that shared the
money gave some of it to local government chairmen. This
person disbursed about N2bn. The rest of them sat on the
money.
“The coordinator, who collected the sum of $50m, later
went to a Federal Government agency and complained of
not having enough funds for the election and got an
additional $20m. The story is the same in almost all the
South-West especially Oyo, Osun and the northern states. A
female minister from the North, who got the highest amount
of funds for that region, lost her state in a shameful
manner.”
Confirming that campaign directors in different parts of the
country had been asked for an audit, the PDP Campaign
Director in Akwa Ibom, Mr. Idongesit Nkanga, said the
instruction was not new.
He stated that the PDP’s campaign organisation in the
state had concluded its audit.
“It is the normal thing. It is the right thing to do for
transparency’s sake,” he said.
Nkanga said he would not be able to comment on the refund
because he did not collect money from anyone.
According to him, the PDP’s campaign organisation in
Akwa Ibom State received a letter for an audit from the PDP
campaign headquarters.
He explained, “Because the letter emanated from the
national headquarters of the party, they were under
obligation to submit the audit report about the campaign’s
expenditure to them.”
He maintained that at the campaign headquarters, some of
the information was available, adding that he would not be
able to give SUNDAY PUNCH accurate details offhand to
avoid possible conflict in the figures.
Asked what sanctions would be meted out to defaulters,
Nkanga said they might be prosecuted.
However, our correspondent reports that prosecution, while
not impossible, may be difficult as most of the monies
disbursed were not receipted.
Contacted, the national leadership of the ruling PDP said it
did not know anything about the money spent on its
presidential campaign.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh,
stated this in an interview with one of our correspondents in
Abuja on Saturday.
Metuh said only those put in charge of the funds were in a
position to account for the monies.
He said, “The national leadership of the PDP is not aware of
any campaign fund. We were not part of it and therefore we
can’t be asked to account for what we didn’t know anything
about.
“There was a campaign committee and only the committee
is in a position to account for any fund.”
Efforts made to speak with the Director-General of the PDP
Presidential Campaign Organisation, Sen. Ahmadu Ali,
were unsuccessful.
Ali, a former national chairman of the party, did not pick
calls made to his phone and also failed to respond to a text
message sent to him.
Similarly, efforts to get the Presidency’s reaction did not
yield any result as calls made to the telephone line of the
presidential spokesman, Reuben Abati, as of 10.30pm, did
not connect.


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