President Goodluck
Jonathan yesterday asked the party and government officials who handled
campaign funds to refund monies not spent, or those not judiciously expended
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 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.
Sunday Punch
