Last weekend’s inauguration of diaspora funding team by the Labour Party (LP) has pitched the party and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)
The Tinubu-Shettima campaign team, at the weekend, asking the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, over the party’s recent inauguration of diaspora team that is charged with raising fund for his campaign.
Labour Party (LP) national chairman, Julius Abure, last week inaugurated the diaspora committee at the partty’s national Secretariat in Abuja
The Tinubu-Shettima Connect, a campaign group for All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate Bola Tinubu. made the call through a, statement it issued at the weekend
In the statement signed by its convener, Adebanjo Moyosore, the group also threatened to take legal action against Obi to stop him from participating in the 2023 presidential election for allegedly engaging in activities that contravene the Electoral Act 2022.
Abure, while inaugurating the committee in Abuja said that the move was to strengthen collaboration among people and galvanise support for the party ahead of 2023 general election.
He added that the committee would also recommend to the national chairman, the creation of Diaspora chapters and monitor their activities.
The LP chairman also said the committee would organise fund-raising for the party’s candidates.
The inauguration came a day after the party’s Diaspora support groups pledged to raise $150 million for Obi’s campaign
But in a swift reaction, the Obi-Datti Media Office dismissed the claim, insisting that the party has never contravened any section of the amended Electoral Act 2022, describe the call as desolate and baseless allegation by a support group
“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 sensitize and carry along Nigerians aboard on his upcoming agenda of rebuilding the country is open and transparent and not a fund raising. But we know why its discomforting 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.
“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 statement noted further described Obi and his running mate as a knowledgeable duo who know the law and operates 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 scrutinized.
“Just as Obi and Dotti backgrounds and antecedents are verifiable so also is their source of income before and now are unambiguous and auditable.
“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.
“Suddenly, they are beginning to realize 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.”
