₦airaland Forum

oseni9ja:
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
monies not spent, 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 government told our
correspondents that President Jonathan was
disturbed that despite giving campaign coordinators,
ministers, special advisers, close aides and friends,
support groups and traditional rulers over N2trn 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 within the Presidency told our
correspondents that one of the President, 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 for. But the source was quick to add 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 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 at the
National Assembly and House of Representatives
polls.
“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 base ball 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 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 that 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 that “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 the 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 his call 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
at 10.30pm did not connect. www.punchng.com/news/jonathan-demands-n2trn-election-funds-refund-audit/

Basildvalour:
...And if he had won, the money would have been an issue forgotten

Now, he is exhibiting his weaknesses to the core

Enegod:
Tomorrow's News "Jonathan Denies Demanding N2trn Election Funds Refund, Audit"