The Labour Party in Ogun State insists that expelled member Doyin Okupe was financially handicapped before joining the Peter Obi Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).
Party executives, Michael Ashade and Abayomi Arambambi, claimed on Saturday that Mr Okupe went on to steal N100 million campaign funds after joining the PCC.
Mr Ashade, state party chairman, said they were levelling charges of “financial impropriety” against Mr Okupe who until his expulsion served as the PCC’s director general.
Mr Arambabi said Mr Okupe initially lobbied to be made the state party chairman on the basis of using the position to raise money for Mr Obi’s presidential campaign.
“He came to ask us at the initial stage that we should give him state chairman so that he would be able to mobilise funds for the party,” asserted Mr Arambabi, Ogun state’s Labour Party spokesperson, on Arise TV Saturday morning.
In response to questions about whether Mr Okupe had actually given the Labour Party four million naira, Mr Arambabi revealed that the expelled member – who always complained about Mr Obi’s tightfisted nature – said he also had no money to contribute to the party.
“Let’s be very categorical here: Dr Okupe does not have any N4 million to spend on Labour Party,” said the Ogun state party spokesperson.
He challenged Mr Okupe to “come here to tell us how much he gave to the 24 members of the state executive. He complained about Mr Obi, it was on the record, that he doesn’t give him money, so he has no money to give.”
The state’s spokesperson further disclosed that Mr Okupe had not given the party a “kobo” in the past seven months.
“He has not committed his kobo to that party for seven months. It was when he started campaigning for Peter Obi that he came to us to say that he has some money to spend into the Labour Party,” the spokesperson said.
Mr Okupe did not immediately respond to calls and messages of enquiry seeking comments on the matter.
