Former governor of a state in Nigeria has been fingered in the spate of embezzlement that is allegedly going on in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Campaign Organisation.
The former governor who has moved around with President Goodluck Jonathan at political rallies and other functions is said to have an interest in a new generation bank where he was chairman at some point.
It was learnt that at a meeting with the President and a few others in January, the President ordered one of the prominent female ministers in his cabinet to release some billions of naira to him to oil the machinery of the campaign team, a source said.
It was fathered that the money was “cornered” from some big government contractors, after resorting to the new strategy in the government circle, known as “decoy,” where money to finance rallies, campaigns and advertisements will come from private individuals and not government officials.
The former governor is said to have some people working with him to disburse the fund but he and a principal officer in the Presidency are alleged to have cornered a substantial part of the fund which runs into billions of naira.
The money was said to have been first lodged in the bank where the former governor has interest, hoping to either enjoy huge interests that would accrue or wait for the end of the elections for him to possess fully.
Our source hinted that part of the money was meant to settle some opinion leaders that are critical of President Jonathan in the six geopolitical zones but that the former governor is still sitting on the money.
It was gathered that President Jonathan had to personally come to the South West to “settle some people” because he does not trust any of his aides brokering negotiations for him as most of such money allegedly ended in private pockets.
The lid on the misappropriation of the fund was blown open by a governorship aspirant in one of the South West states, who was part of the team but felt short-changed.
It was learnt that President Jonathan recently summoned a meeting where he scolded an outspoken Presidency official involved as being part of the scam.
It was learnt that President Jonathan had wanted to sack the outspoken Presidential official, but was advised against it because the elections are just around the corner.
The President was reported to have been angered when the Presidency official began to reel out all sort of names and companies as having benefited from the money.
Full page advert money for newspapers was doubled and tripled just to cover their tracks.
They were said to have told the President that full page advert for Punch, ThisDay, Guardian is now N2 million ‘political special rate.’ centrespread is N6 million and wrap around N70 million because of the election.
The cost of advert for television commercials was also increased.
“It is like all of them know that Jonathan may lose the election. So, they are just trying to take whatever they can take before election day.”
The embezzlement tale has also affected the media team as millions of naira have allegedly been stolen.
The over N150 million said to have been budgeted for online advertisement remains unaccounted for as earlier reported.
The source said that the major problem is that nobody can really discipline the affected officers because the sleaze cuts across all the teams in the campaign organisation – procurement, media, logistics, mobilisation, security, etc.
“They are all helping themselves.”
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