Documentary evidence has reportedly
been released by President Goodluck Jonathan’s allies, revealing that members
of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP,
actually stole funds belonging to the party’s treasury shortly after the
President was defeated in the March 28 presidential election.
Two close associates of the
president told Sahara Reporters about what one of them described as, “shameless
stealing of party funds by officials entrusted with running the affairs of the
party.” They added that President Jonathan felt betrayed by the “greedy
actions” of the NWC members.
The Presidency officials presented
internal vouchers to the online portal showing that the party’s NWC members
shelled out over a quarter of a billion naira in unexplained fees to themselves
on April 8, 2015.
The monies, which were reportedly
paid out of the party’s Zenith Bank account number ending with 6016, showed
that the party’s national chairman, Adamu Muazu, was paid N100 million through
Julius Berger PLC while the deputy chairman of the party, Uche Secondus,
received N40 million.
The documents provided by the
insiders further revealed that the PDP’s national secretary, Adewale Oladipo,
got N30 million. Other members who got N30 million each include the PDP
national treasurer, Buhari Bala; national financial secretary, Bolaji Akpan
Anani; national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh; national auditor, Adeyanju
Fatai; national organizing secretary, Abubakar Mustapha, national women leader,
Kema Chikwe; national Legal adviser, Victor Yusuf Kwon among others.
Aside the scandalous payments,
another set of documents shows that the PDP also compelled delegates to its
annual convention to pay N10,000 each into the private accounts of Marufi
Nigeria Limited. One of the Presidency sources described the company as a
fraudulent front linked to a top member of the NWC.
One of the Presidency officials
stated that the NWC members contributed greatly to the defeat suffered by
President Jonathan, adding that they were more interested in pursuing their
pecuniary interests than the party’s corporate interest as “They were too busy helping
themselves to party funds as President Jonathan’s campaign suffered.”
But in a fierce rebuttal, most NWC
members told SaharaReporters that President Jonathan was the architect of his
own failure, with one of them saying, “He was the person running the country,
not members of the NWC. If Nigerians turned against him, it’s not because of
anything the NWC did or didn’t do”.
Another NWC member alleged that
President Jonathan and his closest associates operated the president’s
multi-billion dollar campaign using structures outside the party; while one
other accused the President of planning to hijack the party in order to place
his loyalists in place in anticipation of running for office again in 2019.
The NWC official accused Governor
Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State of leading the plot to remove the Muazu-led
NWC. Reacting to this, another member vowed that they, “are determined to
ensure that nobody can just pocket a party that many eminent Nigerians
contributed to establish”.
Reacting officially to the
allegation, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh told the medium
that the payments was made to assist NWC for the Governorship and state house
of assembly elections that took place on April 11th 2015. He noted that since
the Presidency was more concerned about transparency, the Presidential Campaign
Council should publish how it gave out N700 million to each state and most
importantly how the Presidency spent Nigerian resources within the last 6
years.
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