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PDP Ayugate: Bringing Back The Bygone Culture of ‘PDP Share the Money, By Elempe Dele

IN any organization held in Trust, financial transactions must be done properly and must be guided by extant laws. No single individual in the organization, be it the president or chairman, have the legal right to dispense funds arbitrarily without conforming to due processes and procedures.

Recently, some members of the PDP National Working Committee, NWC returned some funds paid into their accounts( The amount paid out to NWC members was N540,000,000. 15 members received N28,800,000. And National Secretary and the two National Deputy chairmen got N36,000,000. each) And according to the Deputy National Chairman, Taofeek Arapaja, who provided explanations to news men recently, said the members found out that they found out that there were some forms of anomalies in the management of the party funds by senator Ayu and co. He said first, the numbers released for the sales of forms did not match what the party had promised. So members decided to return the money to the PDP treasury sent to them once they were sure there were some elements of fraudulent transactions. He said in parts, “…we found the money to be odd. What made you(Ayu) to wait so long to offer it to us. Our names must remain anonymous. We believe that is not the kind of money that we should be obtaining.

“We are learning more; we see #1 billion here and an extra $2 billion there. All kinds of things are developing. Even the sales of forms does not adhere to the guidelines that were provided to us.

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“Since we don’t believe the money was sent to us properly, we returned it. It does not imply that we are working for somebody.”

There are several moral and legal issues up for determination. One, 90% of the NWC members are living in Abuja in their own houses, why pay them money for rents when the party is faced with general election next year and will need funds? Secondly, did these members request for such money from the party or is it a normal activity within the party? Can members of the public see the procedure adopted in approving this said money that was paid into these accounts and what other members of the NWC got that haven’t been returned? Is there any evidence of any meeting that was held by the NWC or NEC where the approval for payment was expressly given?

There must be an urgent call and scrutiny for detailed audit of over #14 billion collected from the sales of forms and other recorded donations from the PDP governors.

The reasonable thing to do is for the Chairman to honourably apologize to members of the party and resign so as not to temper with independent investigation.

If this is not done, I am afraid PDP will be heading towards self-induced political guillotine. With this unfortunate development, the sword of Damocles is hanging as a pall over the head of the party. I hope it does not come down to severe the head of the party that is being held by the chairman. The party must ask itself very pertinent questions; what exactly is the political weight of Ayu to PDP? How many votes can he garner from Benue State that Governor Ortom and Gabriel Suswan can’t afford?

I am of the opinion that Senato Ayu must be made to leave by the NEC of the party immediately if he is unwilling to resign. PDP has been thrown back to the era where it was called ‘share the money party’ with these illicit conducts. This is not only an unpatriotic act, it is profound greed, selfish act, evil, unpopular, heartless and ungentlemanly, to say the least. Enough damage has been done, we can’t afford more, not especially this moment we are sloganeering about that we wish to Rescue Nigeria from the APC mal-administration.

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