The duo of President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar were recently dragged to court by the presidential candidate of National Rescue Movement (NRM), Usman Ibrahim- Alhaji, for exceeding the campaign funding limit stipulated in the Electoral Act. In this report, KEHINDE OSASONA revisits the developments against the backdrop of imminent legal brawl.
A throwback
Ahead 2019 polls, acting chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu, warned politicians against reckless spending, overspending and bribery. He said all suspicious bank transactions would be monitored and investigated to ensure nobody went beyond the ceiling for campaign fund.
Not done, Magu went on to discourage movement of large amount of cash, which, according to him, contravenes provisions of the Money Laundering Act.
He further said the EFFC would partner the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to address the rising cases of vote-buying; insisting that investigations of election financing, which started with the investigation of the 2015 election funding, was aimed at disinfecting the electoral process.
“We will bring banks and other collaborators to book. We will monitor how monies are withdrawn from the banks. We will start this from a month or two from the general elections, for unusual withdrawal of cash.”
Campaign benchmark
But in 2015, a civil society organisation, Centre for Social Justice (CENSOJ) had, at a press conference alleged both the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party were violating provisions of the Electoral Act in campaign funding.
It said the parties had so far expended N4.9 billion on publicity thereby exceeding the ceiling recommended by the Act.
The lead director of the group, Eze Onyekpere, further alleged the two parties fielding the frontline candidates namely; Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari, had spent more than what the Act provided for in marketing the candidate.
According to him, while the PDP expended N3.5 billion on publicity between December 2014 and February 2015, the APC spent N1.42 billion during the same period.
Providing further insight, Eze confirmed the APC spent N332 million in the newspapers to campaign for Buhari and another N1.09 billion in other media outlets.
On the part of the PDP, he said the party spent N1.05 billion in the print media to promote Jonathan and another N2.5 billion in other media outlets.
“Although, declining oil prices contributed to Nigeria’s deteriorating macro-economic fundamentals, the coincidence of campaign spending and the acceleration of the deterioration brings to the fore the inextricable link between election spending and the health of the economy.
“With the attention shifted from governance and a lot of expenditure on campaigns, the state of the economy in terms of depreciating exchange rate, inflation and reduced economic growth are bound to occur.”
What the law says
Section 91 (2) of the Electoral Act states that the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall be N1billion while subsection 3 says a governorship candidate shall spend a maximum of N200,000,000.
The Act also says any candidate that fouls the law shall be liable to a fine of N1million or imprisonment of 12 months or both in the case of a presidential candidate.
And the legal battle…
While the previous overspending had always gone unchallenged, presidential candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Usman Ibrahim-Alhaji, recently filed a suit at the Federal High Court, Abuja, challenging the campaign spending of both Buhari and Abubakar, which he believes was beyond the approved limit.
Named as defendants in the suit are the APC, PDP and the INEC.
Ibrahim-Alhaji through his counsel, Ezekiel Ofou, is praying the court to invoke Section 91(2) of the Electoral Act, 2010 to nullify the participation of Messrs Buhari and Abubakar in the February 23 presidential election for allegedly violating the Electoral Act 2010.
The plaintiff equally prays the court to set aside the participation of Messrs Buhari and Atiku on the grounds that they spent over N1 billion each as campaign expenses.
Ibrahim-Alhaji contends that having spent more than the N1billion allowable under the law for their campaigns, including financial inducements, the participation of the duo in the election ought to be set aside by the court.
“The 1st defendant had in an unauthorised manner used state resources brand-named ‘Tradermoni’ with which the 1st defendant through his running mate, Prof Yemi Osinbajo, employed to tactically induce the electorate in exchange for their votes, amounts to fraud covered within Section 124 (1)(a);(b);(c); and Section 130 of the Electoral Act,” he said.
The hurdles
But at the last court session, Ofou expressed frustration over his inability to serve the court papers on the two candidates, being the main defendants in the suit because of the retinue of security around them.
Ofou then prayed the court for an order of substituted service on the two major defendants via an ex parte motion, to serve the duo through the legal departments of their respective parties, predicating this on Order 6 Rule 5 of the Federal High Court Practice Direction.
Consequently, the trial judge, Ahmed Mohammed in a short ruling, granted the application for substituted service, directing the duo to be served through the legal departments of their respective parties.
Lawyers’ stance
Commenting on the development, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Seprebofa Oyeghe concurs with the plaintiff. He says the Electoral Act, 2015 (as Amended) provides for the maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate. “For president, it is N1billion, governorship N200, 000,000 Senate N400, 000, 000, House of Representatives N 200, 000, 000, House of Assembly N10, 000, 000 and Councillors N1, 000, 000.
Explaining further, the legal practitioner says violation of the law on election expenses does not lead to disqualification of such candidate or party from the poll, noting that the law only provides for fine or imprisonment upon conviction.
“Realities on ground will show that these provisions have been wantonly contravened as candidates are being seen spending far above the maximum threshold. Some were even caught at the polling ground with sum running into several millions to buy votes.”
He nevertheless enjoins those charged with prosecutorial responsibility to be fearless and courageous in prosecuting offenders.
Is the suit a reality or fuss?
Also in his own perspective, a public affairs commentator, Maxwell Adeoye describes it as a good development for Nigeria’s nascent democracy, saying,
“I align myself with the candidate and party action.”
Justifying the party’s position, Adeoye says, “No party is bigger than another and should there be any form of violation of certain provisions of the Electoral Acts along the line, then it won’t be out of place to seek redress in the law court which the party in question has done.”
Sharing his thought on the issue, a former first secretary, Nigeria Bar Association, Olatunji Salawu, believes it is difficult to measure political party’s spending for an election, saying the law does not factor individuals’ contributions to the success of the parties’ venture or campaign.
“A party may have a budget not exceeding the benchmark, yet when you aggregate the individual contributions even at 1,000 naira per person by 1000 members, that would also amount to one billion naira.
“Unless a party’s statement of account is scrutinised and found that it actually spent more than the benchmark sum, it would be difficult to know if it was used for political activities.”
Analysts are of the view that testing the law is one surest way of fixing the society and instilling some level of sanity. They say Ibrahim-Alhaji has done his own bit as a citizen, it remains to be seen how the judiciary handles the matter.
