By; MIKE ODEH JAMES, Kaduna
Comrade Faduri Oluwadare Joseph popularly called Fadojoe, a former presidential aspirant under Labour Party and the National Leader of Rescue Movement For New Nigeria aka Rescue The Vulnerable Initiative, has raised alarm over the monumental corruption allegations presently bedeviling Labour Party as well as the misappropriation of the presidential campaign funds obvious from the financial statements released by Mr. Peter Obi.
In a video on his official YouTube channel, Fadojoe laments that Nigeria is at the lowest ebb so far since the history of the country.
“And 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 Mr. Peter Obi. Thus, Labour Party now needs to be rescued
“The issue of repeated financial mismanagement, embezzlement, forgery and other allegations on corruption against Labour Party National Chairman, Barr 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 proper investigation into the monumental allegations and ensure justice is done”.
The activist noted further that since after the election, “we have been asking Mr. Peter Obi to give financial record of the election funds to Nigerians, especially as the chunk of the campaign funds was donated by Nigerians who laboured so much to make their money. It took repeated speaking out, lot’s of our press releases from our group before eventually the campaign financial record was released (after seven months of speaking out).
“Surprisingly, looking at the financial report objectivity it is obvious that what was released to Nigerians can be best described as shameful and shamble financial report clearly depicting mismanagement of kindhearted donations from Nigerians.
“Therefore the pertinent questions begging for answer include, but not limited to the following:
“1. 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?
“2. 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 amounted to that? Nigerians need further and more detail clarifications.
“3. Another claim that a whooping over N324 million was spent on Polling Units Agents calls for serious investigation on the modalities of the disbursement of such amount of money, when majority of the Polling Agents did everything for free including buying their own refreshments from their personal pocket, with so many polling units without Labour Party agents due to lack of funding released?
“In fact some of us sponsored Polling Units Agents to different poling units, from our personal account just to cover up for the day of the election. Without gainsaying, the rigging of the election must have been made so easy and easily covered due to the obvious lapses of not having Labour Party Agents in many polling units across Nigeria.
“4. The total of N295,606,145.00 that was claimed to have been spent on campaign what was it spent on, considering the different sacrifices Nigerians offered in support of Labour Party Presidential Campaign where despite the different huge sum of money donated, Nigerians still produced campaign material from their individual or combined contribution? We are all aware of the different campaign offices donated, making of billboards across the country, printing of posters, flyers, ballot specimen, T-shirts, face caps, wrist bands as well as production and airing of campaign jingles on radio and television; all from individual or combined contribution without demanding one kobo from Labour Party and or the Presidential Campaign Council.
“5. All over the world we have not heard of any campaign where what was claimed to have been spent on court proceedings is more than double of what was said was spent on the entire campaign. If that is suppose to be government expenditures under the watch of Mr. Peter Obi can he ever agree to have appended his signature to such frivolous claim?”
“6. Were the people handling the Labour Party Presidential Campaign finance more interested in going to court after the election than outright been declared as winner during the election?
“7. How then will anyone ever think that Labour Party that claimed to have used total of N295,606,145.00 for all campaign expenses apart from the so called agents funds that nobody knows what it was used for, while also claim that post election court cases gulped N774,500,000.00 (more than double of total of what was claimed spent on campaign)?
“All of the above are clear manifest of mismanagement of campaign funds sacrificially donated for kindhearted Nigerians.”
“Fadojoe also seized the opportunity to call the attention of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the fact that the situation in Nigeria is completely unbearable. Stressing that “many Nigerians are so hungry, prices of foodstuffs and other unavoidable basic needs are skyrocketing daily, Nigerians are getting to the edge and are now protesting from the north, south, east and west. Dear president, you promised a renewed hope, but what Nigerian are getting is renewed hardship, renewed suffering, renewed hunger, renewed economic downturn, renewed insecurity as we are watching our beloved nation going down the drain.
“I hope the government will act as fast as possible to turn things around from the state to the federal.
“This is what some of us saw that we said let us have the younger generation handle our country. Because we are still young, vibrant and without over-clogging thinking faculties. So we will surely do better if given the mantle of leadership.
“Enough of recycling those who are already old, tired, expired and supposed to have retired. In 2023 we desired younger, more vibrant and agile Nigerians to take over the mantle of leadership in our dear nation, but we couldn’t achieve that. I hope we will seriously work towards achieving that through the 2027 general elections.
“May God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria. May God bless the good people of Nigeria. May God bless you and may God bless me. Thank you,” he concluded.
