ACPN to Ezekwesili: 'Bring back our money or we sue you!'

The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has threatened to sue its former presidential candidate, Dr. Obiageli Ezekwesili, if she doesn’t return the campaign donations sent her way before she announced her withdrawal from the presidential race on January 24, 2019.

Ezekwesili renounced her membership of the ACPN on February 3, accusing the ACPN of greed and not being in sync with her values and vision.

The Oby Ezekwesili campaign also revealed that the former presidential candidate received a total sum of N48.9million in donations.

How the money came

N27.8million of the N48.9million came from Ezekwesili’s family members and relatives, the campaign stated.

N15.6million was donated by several other Nigerians, $6,145 was realized via Gofundme, N11,265 came from Paystack and N443,050 came from Flutter Wave, the campaign detailed.

Iyin Aboyeji, Deputy Director General of the “Oby 2019” campaign further disclosed that the team spent a total of N45, 742,423.56, excluding bank charges, during the three-month Ezekwesili campaign period.

Oby Ezekwesili abandoned her presidential bid (Guardian) AFP

According to him, the funds went on covering travel expenses, printing campaign materials, media and publicity, personnel costs, meetings and logistics.

ACPN not satisfied with breakdown

However, the National Chairman of the ACPN, Alhaji Ganiyu Galadima, says the party is not satisfied with Ezekwesili’s explanation of how the presidential campaign donation was spent.

The party has also threatened to sue Ezekwesili for all it's worth.

“So, we wanted to know all the contents of the accounts and see the accounts because at the end of the day, it is not the presidential candidate that the Independent National Electoral Commission will hold responsible, but the party, and whatever any candidate generated for his or her campaign belongs to the party.

“We are expecting that she will respond at the appropriate time but if she doesn’t, we may be compelled to go to court", Galadima said.

The ACPN reiterated its stance that Ezekwesili was never serious about running for president ab initio.

Oby and Galadima were once party members (SaharaReporters) Oby and Galadima Pulse Nigeria

“For somebody who wants to contest for the presidency, all you could generate for period of three months was just N43m and she spent everything. She did not disclose the sources of the fund and how much she generated.

“Look at Omoyele Sowore, he publicly disclosed on a national TV recently that his campaign and the party had been able to generate N99m. In addition, he also told the world how the money could be traced.

“So why is there no transparency in Madam Ezekwesili’s project? That is the bone of contention.

“We are expecting that she will respond at the appropriate time but if she doesn’t, we may be compelled to go to court to seek for order of Mandamus”, Galadima said.

The ACPN disowned Ezekwesili on the day she announced her withdrawal from the race and adopted Muhammadu Buhari of the governing APC as its presidential candidate.

Nigeria holds presidential election on Saturday, February 16, 2019.