Sophia Michaels
A Chieftain of the Labour Party, Faduri Oluwadare Joseph has raised alarm.
Speaking on Friday, he warned that the party may sink due to current allegations of corruption against the party chairman.
This was amid allegations of corruption against the LP National Chairman, Julius Abure.
The National Treasurer of the party, Oluchi Opara, had at a press conference on Monday, challenged Abure to account for an alleged N3.5bn raised from the sale of nomination forms and fundraising activities in the build-up to the 2023 general elections.
But on Wednesday, the party leadership slammed a six-month suspension on Opara for shunning an invitation to a probe meeting and dragging the party’s name in the mud.
This was as Abure challenged the suspended National Treasurer of the party, to provide evidence to back her N3.5bn fraud allegation against him.
However, Joseph who’s also a presidential aspirant of the LP in the 2023 general election, described the allegations of corruption as unfortunate.
Joseph, also the national leader of the Rescue Movement for New Nigeria, noted that the allegations of misappropriation of the presidential campaign funds were not good for the party.
This was contained in a statement by the National Director, Media and Publicity of Rescue Movement for New Nigeria, Rev. Emmanuel Olorunmagba, released to newsmen in Kaduna State on Friday.
The LP chieftain expressed concern that the party Nigerians were looking up to had been enmeshed in monumental corruption allegations to the chagrin of all.
He added that the LP must be rescued, warning that the corruption allegations against Abure, must not be swept under the carpet.
He also queried the financial report released to Nigerians describing it as “shameful” which depicted the mismanagement of donations from Nigerians.
He said, “The Labour Party that Nigerians were looking out for to rescue the country is now languishing in monumental corruption allegations as well as financial misappropriation obvious in the record on the presidential campaign funds released by Peter Obi. Thus, the Labour Party now needs to be rescued
“The issue of repeated financial mismanagement, embezzlement, forgery, and other allegations of corruption allegedly against Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure, is so terrible and should not be swept under the carpet.
“However, that will be a discussion for another day. But I will call on the appropriate government authority to carry out a proper investigation into the monumental allegations and ensure justice is done.
“There are pertinent questions begging for answers such as how sensible is it that N744.5 million was claimed to have been spent for legal fees for the election petition tribunal when the amount said to have been spent on running the whole election is less than half of that?
“We are aware of some lawyers that offered services for Labour Party pro bono, then how did what was spent on the presidential election petition amount to that?.”
