ACPN Rejects Ezekwesili’s Explanation on Campaign Funds

The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has said it is still not satisfied with the account rendered by its former presidential candidate Oby Ezekwesili on donations received during her short-lived presidential campaign.

The party urged the former presidential candidate to return all the monies generated during her short stay in the party, threatening to seek judicoal intervention to compel her to do so.

Both the party and its presidential candidate have engaged in a war of words following the latter’s withdrawal from the race and the subsequent endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari by the party.

Ezekwesili who is one the founders of #BringBackOurGirls# last year joined the ACPN to pursue her presidential ambition but later withdrew from the race.

Addressing a press conference Thursday in Abuja, in response to some allegations made against the national leadership of ACPN by Ezekwesili, national chairman of the party Alhaji Ganiyu Galadima, said the party “rejects in its entirety everything she submitted.”

The party reminded the former minister that a political party was different from a charity organisation or the #BringBackOurGirls where she belongs.

“So, we are rejecting everything she submitted in its entirety, we wanted to know all the content of the accounts and see the accounts because at the end of the day it is not the presidential candidate that INEC will hold responsible according to the law but the party, and whatever any candidate generated for his or her campaign belongs to the party.

“We are expecting that she will respond at the appropriate time but if she doesn’t, we may be compelled to go to court to seek for order of Mandamus.”

Galadima said from all indications, madam Ezekwesili does not have capacity to contest a presidential election, adding that ordinary Lapel that the presidential candidate wore on her chest and distributed to members were paid for by the national secretary of the party.

“For somebody who want to contest for presidency, all you could generate for a period of three months was just N43 million and spent everything by herself. She could not even disclose to the party the sources of the fund and how much she was able to generate.

“We wanted to know the full disclosure of all the accounts she opened because when you look at the statement she made available there are four different accounts which we didn’t know anything about.

“So, we are rejecting everything she submitted in entirety, we wanted to know all the content of the accounts and see the accounts because at the end of the day it is not the presidential candidate that INEC will hold responsible according to the law but the party, and whatever any candidate generated for his or her campaign belong to the party.

“We are expecting that she will respond at the appropriate time but if she doesn’t, we may be compelled to go to court to seek for order of Mandamus,” he said.