Pres. Jonathan demanded N2trillion election funds to be refunded

According to an exclusive Punch report, he did.
Below is what they are reporting...
Following the defeat suffered by
President Jonathan and his party, the
PDP during the March 28 and April 11
elections, the President has asked the
party and government officials who
handled campaign funds to refund  
monies not spent, or those not
judiciously expended, Sunday Punch can
authoritatively report.
Jonathan, credible sources said, has also
set up a committee of five to get those
with the funds to return them.
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.
A reliable source within the Presidency said,
“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.”
Our correspondents gathered that apart from
the N20bn given to some key ministers and
senior special advisers, especially in states
where the PDP hoped to capture from the
opposition All Progressives Congress, some pro-
Jonathan support groups received about N16bn.
A former legislator, who was to print five million
recharge cards, T-shirts and baseball caps, has
also come under pressure to account for the
billions she received because only a few people
got the items she was paid to produce.
Also, a top female politician in Lagos, who got a
contract to produce and supply thousands of
mobile phones with pro-Jonathan messages,
was said to have produced just a few and
pocketed most of the funds.
It was learnt that the funds Jonathan released
were disbursed in three phases. Some were
released before the March 28 elections, others
on the day of the presidential election and more
before the April 11 governorship and state
House of Assembly polls.
Already, the committee of five has started
asking some of the campaign coordinators and
ministers, who received a minimum of N20bn
each, to give an account and also refund
residual funds where applicable.
However, our correspondents learnt that most
of the people, who received the funds had not
cooperated with the committee. While some
have not been forthcoming, others have simply
ignored the committee.
Jonathan is said to be particularly focusing on
the South-West and northern states.
In Lagos, a popular PDP chieftain, who lost in
his polling booth, reportedly received $50m in
cash a few days before the governorship
elections.
A senior PDP party member, who spoke to one
of our correspondents in Lagos over the
weekend, confirmed the cash splurge in Lagos.
The source said, “Lagos was a show of shame.
A few days to the governorship poll, about
$150m was received in cash by about five top
campaign coordinators. But they failed again,
even more than we did in the presidential poll
because we lost some areas we won on March
28 to the APC on April 11. They were to share
this money to the local governments and the
masses.
“Please understand me, I am saying that the
sum of $150m was just for the governorship
election in Lagos. We are not talking about the
sums they got for the presidential election. Only
one out of the five people that shared the
money gave some of it to local government
chairmen. This person disbursed about N2bn.
The rest of them sat on the money.
“The coordinator, who collected the sum of
$50m, later went to a Federal Government
agency and complained of not having enough
funds for the election and got an additional
$20m. The story is the same in almost all the
South-West especially Oyo, Osun and the
northern states. A female minister from the
North, who got the highest amount of funds for
that region, lost her state in a shameful
manner.”
Confirming that campaign directors in different
parts of the country had been asked for an
audit, the PDP Campaign Director in Akwa Ibom,
Mr. Idongesit Nkanga, said the instruction was
not new.
He stated that the PDP’s campaign organisation
in the state had concluded its audit.
“It is the normal thing. It is the right thing to do
for transparency’s sake,” he said.
Nkanga said he would not be able to comment
on the refund because he did not collect money
from anyone.
According to him, the PDP’s campaign
organisation in Akwa Ibom State received a
letter for an audit from the PDP campaign
headquarters.
He explained, “Because the letter emanated
from the national headquarters of the party,
they were under obligation to submit the audit
report about the campaign’s expenditure to
them.”
He maintained that at the campaign
headquarters, some of the information was
available, adding that he would not be able to
give SUNDAY PUNCH accurate details offhand to
avoid possible conflict in the figures.
Asked what sanctions would be meted out to
defaulters, Nkanga said they might be
prosecuted.
However, our correspondent reports that
prosecution, while not impossible, may be
difficult as most of the monies disbursed were
not receipted.
Contacted, the national leadership of the ruling
PDP said it did not know anything about the
money spent on its presidential campaign.
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr.
Olisa Metuh, stated this in an interview with one
of our correspondents in Abuja on Saturday.
Metuh said only those put in charge of the
funds were in a position to account for the
monies.
He said, “The national leadership of the PDP is
not aware of any campaign fund. We were not
part of it and therefore we can’t be asked to
account for what we didn’t know anything
about.
“There was a campaign committee and only the
committee is in a position to account for any
fund.”
Efforts made to speak with the Director-General
of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation,
Sen. Ahmadu Ali, were unsuccessful.
Ali, a former national chairman of the party, did
not pick calls made to his phone and also failed
to respond to a text message sent to him.
Similarly, efforts to get the Presidency’s
reaction did not yield any result as calls made
to the telephone line of the presidential
spokesman, Reuben Abati, as of 10.30pm, did
not connect.



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