PDP officials squandered N12bn in 9 months –Workers

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.
The workers claim that N11bn was realised from the sale of
nomination forms while N1bn was gotten from the sale of
delegates forms.
They alleged that the money was squandered shortly after
the sale of the forms began 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, informed workers about the decision of
the NWC to reduce the party’s workforce by 50% 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.”
However, after a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, the workers
sent a reply to Oladipo yesterday 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 Punch, to former
President Goodluck Jonathan and the acting Chairman,
Board of Trustees of the party, Alhaji Haliru Bello.
Copies were also 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 crisis.
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.”
“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.
Punch

Categories: