Tinubu Group Asks INEC To Disqualify Obi Over $150m Diaspora Funding

A group under the aegis of Tinubu-Shettima Connect has called for the disqualification of the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, from the 2023 presidential race.

Naija News reports that the group was reacting to a report that the National Chairman of the Labour Party, Julius Abure, had inaugurated an 11-man Diaspora Committee to organise fund-raising activities, among other things.

The inauguration also came a day after the party’s Diaspora support groups pledged to crowd-fund $150million for Obi, and another N100billion is to be sourced from supporters in Nigeria.

In a statement issued on Saturday and signed by its convener, Adebanjo Moyosore, the group asked Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Obi and his running mate, Ahmed Baba Datti over violation of the Electoral Act on campaign funding.

The group has also vowed to begin legal action to prevent the Labour Party from participating in the 2023 presidential election for engaging in activities that contravene the Electoral Act.

The Tinubu group said it was not only illegal to raise campaign funds from abroad through unknown sources or unidentified groups, adding that there are also consequences and implications for such an act.

It said the inauguration of a Diaspora committee by the leadership of the Labour Party to gather campaign funds from Nigerians in the diaspora for Obi’s presidential campaign was not “only illegal but also criminal.”

“Section 85 of the Electoral Act has clearly explained this; Section 85 (a) (b) provides that any political party that: (a) holds or possesses any fund outside Nigeria in contravention of section 225 (3) (a) of the constitution, commits an offence and shall, on conviction, forfeit the funds or assets purchased with such funds to the commission, and in addition, may be liable to a fine of at least N5million, or (b) retain any fund or other asset remitted to it from outside Nigeria in contravention of section 225,” part of the statement reads.