Jonathan Asks PDP To Refund Monies Not Spent During Election
President Goodluck Jonathan has asked the Peoples
Democratic Party (PDP) and government officials who handled campaign funds to
refund monies not spent, or those not judiciously expended.
President Jonathan’s
credible sources said that he has also set up a committee of five to get those
with the funds to return them.
Sources within the
party and government told Punch correspondents that President Jonathan was
disturbed that despite giving Campaign Coordinators, Ministers, Special Advisers,
close aides and friends, support groups and traditional rulers over N2trn in
cash, most of them could not deliver their polling booths and Local Governments.
The President was
said to have been further irked by the results of an investigation he ordered.
The probe showed that some coordinators used campaign funds to buy very
expensive properties, especially in Abuja, and luxury cars. Some of the funds
have also been traced to the bank accounts of senior party and government
officials who were charged with the disbursement of funds to voters and groups.
A source who is a
close associate of the president said monies given to traditional rulers in
different parts of the country, for example, would not be demanded for. But the
source was quick to add that the President was determined to get his Ministers,
close aides and special advisers to make refunds.
He said, “Some Ministers
did not get less than N20bn each. None of them can deny it because this fact
isn’t hidden within government circles.
The only problem with such monies is
that there is no receipt to show that they collected money. The sad part is
that almost all of them performed woefully. Even in the states where the PDP
won, some Ministers could not deliver 100,000 votes. They could not mobilise
their people to come out. The President is not happy. They all went property
and car shopping. This was the most expensive election in the history of this
country, yet there was no result.
“The sad part was
that even after the President lost on March 28, more money was given to all of
them to make up for the dismal outing by winning their states during the April
11 elections. But that turned out to be a bad decision because apart from
losing the governorship election, we didn’t perform well at the National
Assembly and House of Representatives polls.
“They must give an
account of the money since they didn’t use it for the election. The President
is not particular about the funds spent on genuine campaign needs like the
hiring of jets, advertisements and the rest that also cost billions of naira.
His focus is on the individuals that collected billions to deliver their states
but couldn’t even win their polling booths.”
Punch correspondents
gathered that apart from the N20bn given to some key Ministers and Senior
Special Advisers, especially in states where the PDP hoped to capture from the
opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), some pro-Jonathan support groups
received about N16bn.
It was learnt that
the funds Jonathan released were disbursed in three phases. Some were released
before the March 28 elections, others on the day of the presidential election
and more before the April 11 governorship polls.
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