ACPN Threatens To Drag Ezekwesili To Court Over Funds

Eniola Olayemi

Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) has said it may have no other option than to drag its former presidential candidate, Oby Ezekwesili, to court if she fails to return alleged N43 million generated during her short stay in the party.

This was stated by the party’s national chairman, Ganiyu Galadima during a press conference in Abuja on Thursday. He denied a claim by Ezekwesili that the leadership of the party was greedy and desperate for money.

According to Galadima, the former Education Minister and Bring Back Our Girls Movement coordinator should know that a political party is different from a charity organisation.

“So, we wanted to know all the contents of the accounts and see the accounts because at the end of the day, it is not the presidential candidate that the Independent National Electoral Commission will hold responsible, 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,” he said.

Insinuating that Ezekwesili was not really prepared to contest for the office of the president Galadima said, “For somebody who wants to contest for the presidency, all you could generate for period of three months was just N43 million and she spent everything. She did not disclose the sources of the fund and how much she generated.

“Look at Omoyele Sowore, he publicly disclosed on a national TV recently that his campaign and the party had been able to generate N99 million. In addition, he also told the world how the money could be traced.

“So why is there no transparency in Madam Ezekwesili’s project? That is the bone of contention. 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.”