Obi didn't go to beg for money abroad - Media Office replies Tinubu group
The Obi Media office accused the Tinubu group of fabricating stories hoping that the electoral body will be spurred to take action.
Peter Obi. [Vanguard]
Recommended articles
![Edo Assembly Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku [Leadership News]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Edo Assembly Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku [Leadership News]")
What happened: Recall that the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, had on Friday, September 2, 2022, inaugurated an 11-man Diaspora Committee to organise fund-raising activities, among other things for the Obi-Datti ticket.
The inauguration came a day after the party’s Diaspora support groups pledged to crowd-fund $150million for Obi, and another N100billion is to be sourced from supporters in Nigeria.
Tinubu group alerts INEC: However, a group under the aegis of Tinubu-Shettima Connect, had asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify the Labour Party presidential candidate for violating the Electoral Act provision on external funding for elections.
ADVERTISEMENT
The group said it was not only illegal to raise campaign funds from abroad through unknown sources or unidentified groups, there is also consequences and implications for such act.
It also vowed to begin a legal action to ensure that Labour Party is disqualified from taking part in the 2023 presidential election as punishment for engaging in activities that contravened the Electoral Act.
Media Office reacts: Reacting to the allegation by the Tinubu support group, the Obi-Datti Media Office in a statement on Sunday, September 4, 2022, described the allegation as “desolate and baseless”, adding that Obi’s trip was to “sensitise and carry along Nigerians abroad on his upcoming agenda of rebuilding the country is open and transparent and not a fund raising.”
It condemned the ruling APC for allegedly fabricating and conjuring thins up to hoodwink the INEC into acting against a candidate it (the APC) had derided for lacking a political structure that can win election.
The Media office wondered why the “structure-less and social media candidates” had now suddenly become the ruling party’s “headache.”
ADVERTISEMENT
The statement read: “The Obi-Datti Media Office attention has been drawn to the desolate and baseless allegation by a support group of Tinubu-Shettima calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP), Mr. Peter Obi and his running mate, Ahmed Baba Datti, from the 2023 presidential election for allegedly violating a section of Electoral Act on Election funding.
“All of a sudden, the structure-less and social media candidates are now the headache of the ruling party that they now had to fabricate and imagine things they want the electoral Commission to act on.
“Obi’s successful trip abroad which is ostensibly to sensitise and carry along Nigerians abroad on his upcoming agenda of rebuilding the country is open and transparent and not a fund raising. But we know why its discomforting (to) some people, because they cannot meet Nigerians in diaspora knowing that they contributed to their leaving the country in the first place.
“We have always said it umpteenth times that their own understanding of structure is the abundance of looted funds in their kitty that they plan to deploy on hungry Nigerian voters during the election to sway their votes.
“They know nobody has the kind of stolen funds they have and are always uncomfortable at anything suggesting to them that their opponents could match them. Obi did not go to beg for money but to sell himself and his mission to Nigerians outside the shores who are critical stakeholders in the Nigeria project.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Since June 2022 that they deployed a lump of their loots to get the ticket of their party, the nation’s currency crashed and still battling for breath. And since then they have been mopping up foreign currencies ahead of the election to buy voters.
“The Media office, therefore, needs to educate them that Obi and his running mate are knowledgeable duo who know the law and operate within it and who became what they are financially, politically and socially doing legitimate businesses. They have no bullion van history of questionable wealth and are ready and willing to be scrutinised.
“Just as Obi and Datti’s backgrounds and antecedents are verifiable, so also are their sources of income before and now are unambiguous and auditable.
“Obi and Datti reached where they are today in this 2023 journey giving no ‘shishi’ to anybody, because they are investing in the suffering Nigerians impoverished by the greedy leaders of the past who diverted public funds to their private and family pockets.
“We understand their predicament, the dearth of contents from their principal, the lack of what to market, using the ample opportunity provided by the campaigns and the resort to searching blindly for reasons to disqualify the people’s only hope for a new and better Nigeria.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Suddenly, they are beginning to realise that the social media giant, the structure-less and inconsequential candidates, are in the heart of the people who are convinced by their pragmatic messages. In frustration and envy they are now desperately looking for all crooked ways to stop them.
“Finally, we like to advise all those in this school of thought that the old order that kept us down as a nation will still work, to read the writing on the wall and know that their time is up and that Nigerians are ready and determined to take back their country now.”
JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!
ADVERTISEMENT
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: eyewitness@pulse.ng
Recommended articles
₦2.7bn fraud: Court grants Sirika, daughter, 2 others ₦100m bail each
Nigeria Air: Sirika, daughter, appear in court over alleged ₦2.7bn fraud
Catholic Bishop wants youth to make church activities go viral on social media
Court gives fresh order in purported move to unseat Damagun as PDP acting chair
MoD hands 20 APCs to Nigerian Armed Forces' to confront security challenges
FG presents 1,437 metric tonnes food commodities to Niger Govt
Jimoh Ibrahim warns Tinubu about danger of not dropping ministers accused of corruption
EFCC to arraign Sirika and his daughter on Thursday over ₦2.7bn fraud
Fubara's loyalist, Jumbo emerges Rivers Assembly Speaker
Pulse Sports
DAVID AND VICTORIA BECKHAM: How the global soccer superstar and the Spice Girl-turned-fashion designer make and spend their millions
Chelsea set to offer Romelu Lukaku and cash for Super Eagles star Victor Osimhen
Mikel Obi: Super Eagles legend goes viral speaking Hausa
Anthony Joshua: Nigerian-born boxer teams up with Mariah Carey, Naomi Campbell and Cuppy in France
ADVERTISEMENT
![Speaker of the House and the state Governor Sheriff Oborevwori. [NAN]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'300'%20height%3D'172'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Speaker of the House and the state Governor Sheriff Oborevwori. [NAN]")