Workers reveal more dirty deals in PDP

Aggrieved workers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday revealed more underground dealings of the party that they said contributed to the party’s failure in the last general elections, and its present financial state as claimed by the leadership.

The workers, aggrieved that the party has decided to cut their pay and sack half of them, contend that mismanagement of the huge funds realized by the party before the elections led to its present state.

These and other allegations were made at a press briefing organised by the workers at the Wadata Plaza headquarters of the PDP in Abuja.

According to them, “Several factors have been adduced as the reasons why the party performed so poorly in the last general elections. We make bold to say that responsibility for the abysmal outing of the party should be located directly at the doorstep of the NWC members due to the following reasons:- Criminal imposition of unpopular candidates; Mind boggling extortion of aspirants.

“An example here is the yet to be resolved allegation by Ndudi Godwin Elumelu who paid whopping N750,000,000 (Seven Hundred and Fifty Million Naira) to the NWC to obtain the gubernatorial ticket of the party in Delta State. There are many other victims; Appointment of incompetent cronies who were specifically detailed to return unpopular candidates as officers in congresses and primaries. The same scenario is being played out in Kogi while Bayelsa is in the wings.

“In Kogi, it is widely alleged that the incumbent governor was requested to cough out the sum of N1,000,000,000 (One Billion Naira) to the same NWC to retain his ticket. Non remittance of campaign funds to state chapters; Results submitted by Congress Committees were blatantly changed; wholesome embezzlement of proceeds of sales of nomination forms.”

Read also: Workers take on PDP over salary cut

The workers who boasted that it is in possession of incriminating documents to indict the NWC, however called on the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), the national caucus and other critical stakeholders to invoke the relevant section of the party’s constitution to hold a NEC meeting to sack the NWC.

It would be recalled that the PDP, barely two months into its new status as the opposition political party, after sixteen years of power, was already struggling in all quarters and yesterday concluded to reduce its staff strength by 50%.

Reacting, national publicity secretary of the party, Olisa Metuh the workers were only playing out the script they were handed by the opposition APC party, adding, that the party was aware of plots by the APC to infiltrate her members and create confusion within the party.

According to him, the protest by its workers was a distraction orchestrated by the APC for members of the public’s attention to be diverted from these critical issues that they have raised.

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