The Allied Congress Party of Nigeria, ACPN, has called on its erstwhile presidential candidate, Oby Ezekwesili, to return all monies generated during her short stint with the party, threatening to seek an order of mandamus against her.
At a news conference on Thursday I Abuja, the National Chairman of the party, Ganiyu Galadima, said that the accounts rendered by her to the party was unacceptable and was subsequently rejected.
Both the party and its presidential candidate have engaged in the war of words following the later’s withdrawal from the race and the subsequent endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari by the party.
According to Mr Galadima, Mrs Ezekwesili only invested N100,000 being the money she paid for her expression of interest form, instead of N500,000 which she was supposed to pay.
Mr Galadima said from all indications, Mrs Ezekwesili does not have the capacity to contest a presidential election, adding that ordinary Lapel that she wore on her chest was paid for by the national secretary of the party.
“For somebody who wants to contest for the 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.
“Look at the Omoyele Sowore, he publicly disclosed on a national TV recently that his campaign has been able to generate about N99 million with the party. In addition, he has also told the world how this money could be traced.
“So why is there no transparency in madam Ezekwesili’s project? That is the bone of contention.
“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 an order of Mandamus.”
He said the party “reject in entirety everything she submitted”, telling the former minister that a political party is different from a charity organisation or the #BringBackOurGirls where she belongs to.
“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 an order of Mandamus.”
