September 05, (THEWILL) – The Labour Party (LP) has dismissed alleged receipt of $150 million in foreign donations by the Peter Obi presidential campaign organisation.
Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, on Sunday, completed his tour of five US states, where he consulted with the Nigerians in diaspora about his ambition.
Following reports that some diaspora support groups had pledged to crowd-fund $150 million for Obi, a support group of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, called for the disqualification of the LP candidate and his running mate, Yusuf Datti Ahmed-Baba.
While there’s no indication that Obi has begun receiving campaign donations whether locally or from the diaspora, the Tinubu group claimed that the LP candidate had violated provisions of the Electoral Act on campaign funding and should be disqualified by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The call made by the ‘Tinubu-Shettima Connect’ came after the Labour Party national chairman, Julius Abure, reportedly inaugurated an 11-man diaspora committee in Abuja to raise funds for Obi.
In its reaction, the Tinubu group had said: “Section 85 of the Electoral Act has clearly explained this; Section 85 (a) (b) provides that any political party that: (a) holds or possesses any fund outside Nigeria in contravention of section 225 (3) (a) of the constitution, commits an offence and shall, on conviction, forfeit the funds or assets purchased with such funds to the commission, and in addition, may be liable to a fine of at least N5million, or (b) retain any fund or other asset remitted to it from outside Nigeria in contravention of section 225,”
But speaking on Channels Tv’s ‘Sunday Politics’ on Sunday, Professor Pat Utomi, stated that Obi had yet to receive any donation toward his election bid, but noted that “when the time is right, the diaspora will give money.”
“They (Nigerians in the diaspora) have always given money to campaigns. I have run for president before, I got support from the diaspora in 2007 and then in 2011. When the time is right, we’re going to solicit obviously from Nigerians across the board”, he said.
According to the political economist, a portal through which Nigerians can donate money to Obi’s campaign organisation is being set up.
“These portals are not up yet. They will be up next week or so and eventually we are going to be able to access resources from the diaspora for sure. But right now, we are on sensitisation tour about what makes democracy work. Right now, Nigeria’s democracy is not working because of the transaction costs that are involved”, he said.
When asked if Obi would not be flouting the law by receiving foreign donations, Utomi argued that other political parties have also violated the law by “sharing dollars” during their presidential primary elections.
“All we are saying is that we are going to have a portal and every Nigerian can go in and make their contributions. What can be more democratic than that? If there is a law that opposes that, that law is fundamentally flawed…that law does not deserve the name of law”, he added.
Speaking further, Utomi denied Obi’s involvement in the alleged imposing of charges on Nigerians who attended the diaspora meetings with him.
His words: “We have been invited to events, we don’t know what the mechanics are. In America the tradition is different (when) some people give breakfast or dinner, they may charge people to come to eat. But we’ve not been associated with anything, we just get invited by Nigerian groups and we attend.”
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