The social media space has been inundated with the stories of PDP financial recklessness and gross profligacy by members of the PDP National Working Committee (NWC), headed by Prince Uche Secondus.
The past two days were followed by clarifications from different PDP departments, precisely finance and treasury, coming to set the record straight before Nigerians.
Hence, for posterity and fairness sake, we will also set the record straight by saying that we are not enemies of the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus; the National Treasurer, Mr Adewale Aribisala; and Peoples Democratic Party-PDP.
This is not all about the money owed, but about equity, justice, fairness, rights, reengineering and positioning PDP to win 2023 elections, as we are set to fight APC to the ground, because is only a united house that can stand.
In setting the record straight, we must refer to Mr Aribisala’s clarifications and then ask some pertinent questions.
According to Mr Aribisala, “Our attention has been drawn to some spurious and scandalous information making the rounds about revenue generated from sales of forms with respect to Anambra governorship election”
We had earlier published how PDP NWC budgeted and allocated money to be paid to different arms of beneficiaries and the total amount of N276million Naira involved in Anambra primary election and that PDP NEC had approved it, and Mr Aribisala did not deny this with a counter claim, yet he described our report as spurious and scandalous. This is not fair.
Again, setting the record straight, Mr Aribisala stated as follows:
“The revenue earned from the sales of forms from Anambra governorship election was budgeted for and approval was sought from National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party and the money for the payment of the people who participated in the assignment is intact and will be paid immediately after resolving some technical issues we have with the bank”
Here Mr Aribisala cited technical issues with the bank as his reason for not paying us – the electoral officers. This is not true.
Now, out of the below job arms to be paid as:
1. Statutory payments to state and zone…. N55,200,000
2. Salaries and allowances….. N169,000,000
3. Board of Trustees…. N10,000,000
4. National Working Committee (NWC)… N75,000,000
5. Electoral Observers to Anambra…. NONE
From the above, it is clear that only payment for the Electoral Officers in the Anambra state PDP primary election that has not been performed, effected and paid accordingly.
Also, Mr Aribisala said we should seek clarifications from appropriate quarters as: “Conclusively, we appeal to aggrieved individuals on any matter to seek clarifications from the appropriate quarters before painting our party in bad colours in the sight of Nigerian voters”
Now, who is painting our party in bad colours? Who is damaging the image of the party?
Consequently, when we went for the clarifications from appropriate quarters, these were what we discovered with evidence to show:
1. Board of Trustees members were paid…N10million Naira
2. Members of PDP National Working Committee (NWC) were paid… N75million Naira
3. Anambra PDP and Zonal PDP were paid …N55.2million Naira
4. The PDP staff were paid ….. N169million Naira
5. Electoral Officers …… NONE
All the above categories for payment have received their payments except for the Electoral Officers who are now being denied by bank technical issues, according to Mr Adewale Aribisala.
Now, the pertinent question is why didn’t bank technical issues affect the ‘sacrosanct’ payment of N75million Naira to members of the PDP NWC?
Remember, we are only setting the record straight. Why? … Why didn’t it affect them. Soonest we will all gather at the Eagle Square, Abuja, some of us will leave Zamfara state, Ogun state, Imo state etc as delegates only to go and vote NWC members who will collect their own money and deny her members.
It has become obvious that NWC business is now more lucrative than oil and gas business.
Now, what is the difference between this act by PDP NWC and what the Nigerian soldiers at the battle field complained about APC government?
People will go to the field and work, while NWC members in their comfort zones in Abuja will guzzle it up.
Equally, during our search for more clarifications as instructed by Mr Aribisala, we discovered that the National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus, instead of using his personal money to offset his private expenses, he used our money, this money meant for Electoral Officers to charter private jet (flight) and do some honorarium during his trip to Niger State, where he had gone to lobby General Ibrahim Babangida, RTD, to enable him come back for a second term tenure in office as PDP National Chairman, Convention 2021.
For the sake of peace and for PDP to live, we will stop here for now.
Also, Mr Aribisala has made another promise as: “In line with the above, we have instructed the concerned persons to ensure the bank issue is resolved and the people who went for the assignment will start getting their payments possibly before the week runs out”.
You have heard him, and we have been hearing this more than one month now. Today is Wednesday 21, 2021. We are patiently waiting……