President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday
said there was no truth in a report that he
and the Peoples Democratic Party spent
N2tn for campaigns ahead of the just-
concluded general elections.
He also denied setting up a committee to
conduct an audit of how the elections
funds were disbursed by party members
and state officials.
Jonathan made the clarification in a
statement by his Special Adviser on
Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati.
Abati was reacting to a story of the
SUNDAY PUNCH of April 19 titled,
“Jonathan demands N2tn election funds
refund, audit.”
He described the report as “mischievous,
false and embarrassing.”
The presidential spokesman said with the
country’s budget being a little above
N4tn, the story suggested that half of the
federal budget was spent on elections.
This insinuation, he argued, was meant
to incite the public and instigate a
national crisis.
Abati said the Presidency was worried
that since the March 28 and April 11
elections, some persons had continued
to work very hard to diminish the
Jonathan Presidency.
He said such people needed to be
reminded that the time for politics was
over and it is time to focus on the in-
coming government, with emphasis on
national development.
The statement partly read, “The front-
page story of the Sunday Punch of April
19 alleging that the Presidency spent a
whopping N2tn on the 2015 general
elections, and that a Committee of Five
has been set up by President Jonathan to
conduct an audit of how the funds were
disbursed by party members and state
officials is mischievous, false and
embarrassing.
“The President has not set up any
committee as alleged in that story. It is
also not true that the Presidency and the
Peoples Democratic Party used state
funds, or spent N2tn on the campaigns.
The innuendoes are wrong-headed; the
motives behind the story are suspicious.”
