Peter Obi’s Labour Party has been roiled by another damaging financial scandal after public complaints revealed the alleged theft of N22M by four support groups in Edo State.
The building scandal, which ostensibly followed a similar pattern of raising and siphoning public donations under the misleading notion of coordinating campaign activities for the Labour Party, gained attention after members of the public, some of whom donated the fund, became frustrated with the incessant postponements of the activities for which the donation was made and the subsequent disappearance of the organizers.
Esan Youth for Peter Obi, Edo North Obi Support Group, Oredo United for Obi/Datti, and Obi/Datti Integrity Support Group constitute the four support groups alleged to have carried out the fraud.
A public report circulating in Edo-focused political Whatsapp groups named one Itohan as the leader of the Oredo United for Obi/Datti and behind the theft of N10MN after raising public donations for a street walk that was never staged.
Itohan was alleged to have sidelined other members of the group after obtaining the sum before a sudden disappearance which prompted the public alarm.
Similar incidents of fraud were reported in the other three support groups, with the sum involved totalling N22M.
This is coming on the heels of the revelation by the Ogun State Chapter of the Labour Party that its Presidential Campaign Director, Doyin Okupe, stole N20M in funds earmarked for the purchase of fake crowds at its Oyo presidential rally.
These scandals have reinforced public perception of the Obi movement, and the unlikely ambition of Peter Obi who continues to suffer a lack of national recognition and appeal, as merely an opportunistic move to profit off the yearning of a minority section of the population for radical political change.