PDP officials blew N12bn in nine months –Workers … say NWC members shared money made from nomination forms
PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo |
Angry workers of the Peoples Democratic
Party have accused the members of the National Working Committee of the
party of squandering N12bn in nine months.
Out of the total sum, the workers said
N11bn was realised from the sale of nomination forms while N1bn was got
from the sale of delegates forms.
They alleged that the money was squandered shortly after the sale of the forms commenced on October 27, 2014 till date.
The workers said this in their response
to the letter sent to them by the party’s National Secretary, Prof. Wale
Oladipo, on Wednesday.
Oladipo,
in the letter, had informed the workers about the decision of the NWC
to reduce the party’s workforce by 50 per cent and to also cut the
salaries of those to be retained by the same percentage.
The national secretary of the party said the decision, among others, would take effect from August.
He said, “Establishment staff who would
remain are required to obtain individual letters of revalidation from
their state chapters within one month of this circular to their
suitability for service at the national secretariat.”
But the workers, after a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, sent a reply to Oladipo.
Their reply, which was directed to
Oladipo, was dated July 30, 2015 and titled, “Re: Organisation and
Restructuring of staff at the national secretariat of the Peoples
Democratic Party.”
They sent copies of the letter, which
was exclusively obtained by our corespondent, to former President
Goodluck Jonathan and the acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the
party, Alhaji Haliru Bello.
Also, copies were sent to the Deputy
Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, PDP caucuses in both the Senate and
the House of Representatives, Chairman, PDP Governors’ Forum, Dr. Segun
Mimiko and all the PDP governors.
Besides querying how the N11bn was
spent, the workers also said they were aware that the party realised
another N1bn in sales of delegates forms recently.
With this, the angry workers wondered how the party that was in power could be in a financial mess.
Their letter to Oladipo read in part,
“While we appreciate the fact that the party is no longer in power, we
are equally aware that the party realised over eleven billion naira
(N11,000,000,000) in income from the sale of nomination and expression
of interest forms in the last quarter of 2014.
“We are equally aware that the NWC
collected over a billion naira from the sale of delegate forms via a
company account called Morufi Nig. Ltd, Zenith Bank Account
N0:1014041654.
“With this healthy bank balance, we find
it strange that after just two months of handing over power, the NWC is
proposing a 50% reduction in staff emoluments.”
They said that they were aware that the
NWC members were in the habit of paying themselves huge sums of money
after the party lost power during the 2015 general elections.
The letter read further, “We have also
observed from publications in the media that the NWC shared outrageous
largesse among themselves immediately after the party’s loss in the last
general elections.
“We are appalled by the whimsical and
derisory nature of the circular which unfortunately negates all known
administrative procedures. We wish to recall that the national
secretary, who is statutorily in charge of the administration of the
secretariat, has never called for a staff meeting or held any
interactive session with the staff since his privileged appointment.
“We wish to draw the national
secretary’s attention to the fact that there are administrative
procedures for the disengagement of staff whose appointments have been
duly confirmed.”
The workers said they welcomed the decision of the NWC members to reduce their personal staff and also reduce their emoluments.
But they said they rejected “the
directives for staff members to get revalidation letters from the state
chapters as this act will amount to accepting our unlawful disengagement
from service.
“We reject in totality the proposal to
reduce staff emolument by 50%. This is because unlike the members of the
NWC, the staff are solely dependent on their salaries and allowances.”
They said they still have unwavering
belief in the possibility of the party bouncing back, and, therefore,
urged the NWC to have the same faith.
The workers reminded the NWC members
that the establishment staff of the PDP national secretariat were
engaged on the basis of a well-articulated establishment manual that
expressly stated the conditions of service therein.
However, the National Publicity
Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, told our correspondent that the
party took the decisions because it realised that majority of the
workers had lost touch with their state chapters of the party.
Source: The Punch
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