Activist Aisha Yesufu has been locked in a war of words with the national chairman of a faction of the Labour Party (LP) Julius Abure over funds raised for the party’s 2023 presidential campaign.
Mr Abure told a press conference on Monday that Mrs Yesufu and Pastor Ituah Ighodalo were responsible for managing funds raised to prosecute the campaign of the party’s candidate Peter Obi.
Abure alleged that funds were mismanaged and called on the national security adviser and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate Yesufu, Ighodalo, Obi and leaders of Afenifere.
“The election funding was done by Obi himself. As per the donations, the party was not involved. The signatories to these accounts were Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua Ighodalo. They were equally responsible for the payment of polling unit agents,” he said.
Yesufu however responded in a video uploaded on YouTube on Tuesday.
According to her, Abure’s statement was a “big, fat lie.”
She said, “Before Mr Obi came out with his campaign account, the Labour Party had theirs. I have here a Labour Party N1,000 challenge post that was tweeted on November 24, 2022.
“When that account was opened by Abure, I was very angry. I remember some people harmlessly saying it was no big deal since it was for the same Labour Party campaign.
“But I insisted that it is not the same thing because we don’t have access to any money that went into the LP account and therefore can’t use it to facilitate the electioneering campaign.
“So for Julius Abure to come out in 2024 to blatantly lie that they were not involved in any campaign, saying it was only Aisha Yesufu and Pastor Itua (is unbelievable).
“By the way, there are three signatories, not two as he said. Up till now, the LP has not accounted for the money the public donated to them neither have they accounted for the money used to procure forms.”
Yesufu claimed that the LP faction led by Abure gave her “fictitious” names to pay as agents during the election.
According to her, about 2,000 out of 13,000 persons on the agent list were paid before the process was suspended, adding that N1billion was budgeted for the payout.
She called on anyone interested in the matter to investigate.
Yesufu mocked Abure and his associates in a post on X on Thursday, saying: “NSA is so jobless inspite of all the insecurity in Nigeria that the former Labour Party officials are asking him to come and help them find monies they never had.”
