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PDP workers, Metuh in fresh fight

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Workers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday launched a fresh offensive against the leadership of the party, zeroing in on the National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, who they accused of working against the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan because he lost the post of the Director of Publicity of the Presidential Campaign to Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode.
But Metuh said it was not unexpected, that the workers chose to drift from issues and narrow on him, especially “given the role of the National Publicity Secretary in the rebuilding of our great party and how uncomfortable the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been for his outspokenness.”
The face-off between the main opposition party and its workers started after the latter said it would reduce its staff strength by 50 percent while cutting the salaries and allowances of the remaining workers by half.
The aggrieved workers it another letter the chairman of their association, Ngozi Nze and secretary, Dan Ochu-Baiye in Abuja on Saturday, said “We have incontrovertible evidence that the man who is PDP Publicity Secretary worked assiduously against the presidential candidate of the PDP, former President Goodluck Jonathan in the last election in order to requite the ex-President for rejecting him as Director of Publicity of the Presidential Campaign which was given to Mr.Femi Fani-Kayode, a development which came after Metuh had squandered a whooping sum of N450m media fund earlier approved for the office of PDP Publicity Secretary by Jonathan.”
The association also described as “an absolute bunkum, a clumsy, and blundering blackmail, an allegation by Metuh that the staff members were being sponsored by the ruling All Progressives Congress”.
Read also: Workers reveal more dirty deals in PDP
The workers said that such a weak shot from a “mortally crippled arsenal of witch-hunt is incapable of breaking the resolve of the staff to expose the thieving band in the NWC and restore the core vision of the party.”
The angry workers are also asking the NWC members to account for the over N12bn which they said were squandered by them in just nine months.
They alleged that in the January 2010 Anambra governorship election, Metuh as National Vice-Chairman, South-East abandoned Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the PDP candidate while openly galvanizing support for Hope Democratic Party candidate, who they described as his friend and benefactor.
“The PDP did not only woefully lose in Otolo Nnewi Ward 1 of the Party’s zonal Vice Chairman but came a distant third in his polling booth! What a faithful party officer!”
They asked Metuh to explain what he did with “the huge sum of N70m that he collected in July in the name of fighting the APC in the media.”
But Metuh in a statement signed by one Richard Ihediwa, his Special Assistant said, “We are aware that the anti-PDP forces have easily found a handful of disgruntled PDP staffs as willing tools to attack Chief Metuh with a view to bringing him to public odium, distract him and deny our party a credible voice to propagate its positions. These forces had even gone to the extent of engineering some discontented PDP members to portray statements by the National Publicity Secretary as his personal opinions in the attempt to discredit and intimidate him.

Read also: Workers reveal more dirty deals in PDP

“For the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that the National Publicity Secretary will not be deterred or detracted by such threats and cheap blackmails as he remains committed to his role in the rebuilding of the PDP and in providing firm, credible and issue based opposition to the ruling party.
“This office would not join issues with these elements, however we make bold to state that Chief Olisa Metuh, being aware of the challenges that comes with his new role has offered himself, his office as well as all his private companies for probe by the Department of State Services (DSS) or any other government agency for that matter.
“The authors of the press statement deliberately refused to appreciate Chief Olisa Metuh’s immense contributions in the party and the fact that he became the longest serving member of the National Executive Committee due to hard work and the confidence members of the party repose on him as an individual”.

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