Whaat?? Pres. Jonathan Demands For Refund Of 2 Trillion Naira In Campaign Funding

This is really interesting, based on the fact that accountability went into thin air during GEJ's regime

A report in the Punch has painted the picture of a furious President Jonathan who wants Ministers, Senators and Chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to show what they did with all the money received for the 2015 election campaigns. Trillions of Naira were disbursed to ensure the President won a re-election bid but he still lost to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The Punch reports that; sources within the party and government told our correspondents that President Jonathan was disturbed that despite giving campaign coordinators, ministers, special advisers, close aides and friends, support groups and traditional rulers over N2trn in cash, most of them could not deliver their polling booths and local governments.

The President was said to have been further irked by the results of an investigation he ordered. The probe showed that some coordinators used campaign funds to buy very expensive properties, especially in Abuja, and luxury cars. Some of the funds have also been traced to the bank accounts of senior party and government officials who were charged with the disbursement of funds to voters and groups.

Ministers were said to have received some N20bn each and campaign co-coordinators in Lagos received as much as $150m to deliver their constituencies. The President is irked that some Ministers and campaign coordinators could not even deliver their polling booths even after receiving all that money. Monies were disbursed to acquire campaign materials and phones bearing the President's image; but the sums were sparsely used for the intended purposes.

The Punch quotes a presidential source as saying:

"Some ministers did not get less than N20bn each. None of them can deny it because this fact isn't hidden within government circles. The only problem with such monies is that there is no receipt to show that they collected money. The sad part is that almost all of them performed woefully. Even in the states where the PDP won, some ministers could not deliver 100,000 votes. They could not mobilise their people to come out. The President is not happy. They all went property and car shopping. This was the most expensive election in the history of this country, yet there was no result.

"The sad part was that even after the President lost on March 28, more money was given to all of them to make up for the dismal outing by winning their states during the April 11 elections. But that turned out to be a bad decision because apart from losing the governorship election, we didn't perform well at the National Assembly and House of Representatives polls.

"They must give an account of the money since they didn't use it for the election. The President is not particular about the funds spent on genuine campaign needs like the hiring of jets, advertisements and the rest that also cost billions of naira. His focus is on the individuals that collected billions to deliver their states but couldn't even win their polling booths."

The report tells the story of a splurge in Naira and Dollars on the President's failed reelection bid.

Source: Ekekeee