The Labour Party’s leadership has reaffirmed that they have not disregarded Peter Obi’s request to conduct a forensic audit of LP accounts.
Two different interviews with Yunusa Tanko, the chief spokesperson for the Labour Party Campaign Organization, and Obiora Ifoh, the LP’s national publicity secretary, verified this.
Following Oluchi Oparah’s (now suspended) challenge to Julius Abure, the National Chairman of the LP, to account for an alleged N3.5 billion raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities in the run-up to the 2023 general elections, there was a growing call for an independent audit firm to look into the party account.
Additionally, during Obi’s election campaign tour in the US, Opara accused Abure of not returning the contributions that Nigerians living abroad had given him.
However, the lawmaker from Edo refuted all of her accusations when he appeared as a guest on Arise News following the allegation.
Abure bemoaned that the accusations of corruption against him were a ploy to damage his reputation, as he presented copies of checks that were purportedly signed by the treasurer along with other supporting documentation.
As he entered, Obi demanded an internal audit of the party’s finances.
The call by Obi was supported by the 36 state chairmen of the Labour Party.
But nothing more was heard about the case for a month following Obi and other party stakeholders’ recommendation.
After reaching out to newsmen, Tanko confirmed that the issue had not been ignored as had been rumored.
He said, “That particular process is still on. What is needed now is just to make the books (account) available and we will take it from there. It is an ongoing issue.
“Don’t also forget that INEC itself has conducted its own audit of the account of every political party. They always send their internal auditors to audit every account and publish the outcome. Nobody is sweeping anything under the carpet as you alleged.”
On his part, Ifoh also told newsmen:
“We must state clearly that our leader Peter Obi made reference to the audit of the campaign account and not the forensic audit for the Labour Party. In any case, we have stated clearly that the party is open to a forensic audit of its accounts.
“We are even calling on the NLC to send its own external auditors to check our financial books. We are also calling on Peter Obi to expedite action on the auditing of our accounts.”
