Can INEC Disqualify Peter Obi for Raising Funds from Diaspora? Lawyers React
Ahead of the 2023 elections, the campaign team of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), recently announced plans to raise funds from Nigerians in the diaspora.
Amid the LP's plan, media reports also stated that some Nigerians in the diaspora have formed committees to create a crowdfunding portal to raise $150 million from Obi’s supporters in the diaspora and N100 billion from those in Nigeria.
Source: Facebook
However, the plan to raise funds abroad has created some controversy as some support groups under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) claimed it is illegal.
In its reaction, Tinubu-Shettima Connect, an All Progressives Congress (APC) support group, asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to disqualify Obi over what it described as a “violation of the electoral act”.
Also, another APC support group, The Progressive Clan, kicked against the decision to raise funds from Nigerians in the diaspora and called for INEC's intervention.
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Popular political commentator Deji Adeyanju expressed similar view in a Facebook post.
"No political party or candidate can receive donations or funds from outside Nigeria under our laws," Adeyanju wrote on Facebook.
Raising campaign funds abroad: What the law says
Festus Ogun, a constitutional lawyer, said "donations made by concerned citizens and support groups (either in Nigeria or in the diaspora) to Peter Obi and or his Campaign Team are not in violation of any living law in Nigeria."
The legal expert explains that those who believe seeking donations abroad is illegal rely largely on Section 225(3)(a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as altered) and Section 85 of the Electoral Act, 2022.
Section 225(3)(a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as altered) provides that:
“No political party shall hold or possess any funds or other assets outside Nigeria; or b. be entitled to retain any funds or assets remitted or sent to it from outside Nigeria”.
Section 85 of the Electoral Act, 2022 provides that:
"Any political party that— (a) holds or possesses any fund outside Nigeria in contravention of section 225 (3) (a) of the Constitution, commits an offence and shall on conviction forfeit the funds or assets purchased with such funds to the Commission and in addition may be liable to a fine of at least N5,000,000 ; or
"(b) retains any fund or other asset remitted to it from outside Nigeria in contravention of section 225 (3) (a) of the Constitution commits an offence and shall on conviction forfeit the funds or assets to the Commission and in addition may be liable to a fine of at least N5,000,000."
Ogun, in a piece sent to Legit.ng, explained that the above provisions "simply prohibits a POLITICAL PARTY from holding or possessing any funds or other assets outside Nigeria and from retaining any funds or assets remitted or sent to it from outside Nigeria."
In simple terms, it is political parties that can are barred from raising funds outside Nigeria, not candidates or support groups.
"In our considered view, 225(3)(a)(b) of the 1999 Constitution is only applicable to Political Parties and it is not applicable to political candidates or their campaign organizations. It is not a subject of debate that the diaspora donations are said to be made to either Peter Obi and or his Campaign Organization," the lawyer said.
Peter Obi can raise funds from the diaspora - SAN
Corroborating Ogun's position, Paul Ananaba, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), said a political candidate “is not barred from raising funds from the diaspora”.
The senior lawyer made this known in an Arise Television interview aired on Monday, September 5.
“If Obi is raising funds from the diaspora as an individual that is correct, but as a political party it is entirely wrong. The law does not define a political party to include the candidate and neither does the definition of the candidate include the political party.
“The Electoral Act limits the amount a presidential candidate can spend on an election campaign to N5 billion," Ananaba said.
Penalty for raising funds not disqualification of candidates - Ogun
Explaining further, Ogun said assuming that the Labour Party violates the law by raising funds outside Nigeria, the penalty for such offence, according to the Electoral Act, is not the disqualification of its presidential candidate, as the Tinubu-Shettima Connect demanded.
The legal expert said the punishment for a political party that raises funds outside Nigeria is the forfeiture of the fund to INEC and payment of penalty.
"There is no law that prescribes diaspora funding is a ground for disqualification of a candidate. Diaspora funding is a crime and the punishment for it is the forfeiture of the fund to INEC and payment of penalty- certainly not disqualification of the party’s candidate," Ogun told Legit.ng.
Peter Obi raising campaign funds in US, Europe? Media Office reacts
Meanwhile, the Obi-Datti Media Office has debunked allegations that the Labour Party presidential candidate, Obi, is currently on a fund-raising tour in the United States and Europe.
In a statement on Sunday, September 4, the Obi-Datti Media Office described the allegation as “desolate and baseless”.
The media office explained that Obi’s trip was to “sensitise and carry along Nigerians abroad on his upcoming agenda of rebuilding the country is open and transparent and not a fund raising.”
Source: Legit.ng
