ABUJA, Federal Republic of Nigeria. Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors are united on the need for the party’s national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu to give way because of the suspicion that he could use his position to enhance his presidential aspiration in 2019.
It was gathered that the governors, at their last meeting in Abuja, discussed the travails of the party and one of the issues raised was the suspicion that Mu’azu compromised the party for “his presidential ambition in 2019.”
“We are of the view that we should have a level playing field in the party and that somebody should not use his position to his advantage in the 2019 race. We know he wants to contest the presidency,” according to a Governor.
One of the reasons for the current jostle for the control of the party is said to be the belief that General Muhammadu Buhari of the APC would not seek re-election and that would put the PDP candidate at an advantage.
That thinking was said to have also engineered what was called the “clean out” syndrome whereby many PDP officials and stakeholders with the belief that Jonathan would lose the election decided to withhold campaign logistics, believing that the same should be their “retirement benefits.”
A close aide for another governor said: The governors are determined to take charge of the party from May 29 if the outgoing president fails to proffer solutions to the current crisis.
How N30bn ruined party
Stakeholders are said to be demanding answers from the national leadership of the party as regards how the N30 billion raised for the prosecution of the elections was expended by the handlers of the funds.
The funds are made up of N21 billion realised at a fund raising event and the N9 billion realised from the sale of nomination forms.
The stakeholders, it was gathered, had picked holes in an explanation by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, over the disbursement of the funds.
It was gathered that the stakeholders are querying the arithmetic the party chief used to justify his alleged claim of a receipt of N9 billion funds by the NWC from sale of nomination forms and his disclosure that N100 million was disbursed to each of the party’s governorship candidates in 28 states and varying sums given to other candidates in the different categories.
The disgruntled stakeholders, it was learnt, are also displeased by their inability to reach a party chieftain said to be in possession of the N21 billion for answers.
He is alleged to have changed his telephone numbers immediately after the elections.
Also, questions are still being raised on how the several millions of naira disbursed to states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, by the national secretariat of the PDP for the prosecution of the elections was “mismanaged” by those appointed as link persons.
Authoritative sources at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja assert that it had been discovered that the majority of the link persons diverted the funds to private use while others used the funds to the advantage of the opposition.
A source disclosed that in some confirmed cases, handlers of the funds deliberately sidelined the candidates who were supposed to be the beneficiaries of the funds once they belonged to different camps within the party.
Chief Metuh had told journalists in Abuja two weeks ago that the NWC of the party funded each of its governorship candidates to the tune of N100 million, depending on states, while substantial amounts were given to candidates for the Houses of Assembly and National Assembly elections.
Metuh declared that the disbursements to the states by the NWC were made through the governors and ministers while direct disbursements were made to the candidates themselves in some cases.
However, it was gathered that while the handlers of the funds gave out peanuts from the millions of naira collected from the party’s leadership and the presidency, some even refused to release any money to the candidates, a situation said to be responsible for the dismal performance of the party at the polls.
According to a source, “in Osun State, I think N1 million each was given to candidates for House of Assembly, while the House of Representatives and senatorial candidates got between N2 million and N3 million each respectively.
The situation in Oyo State is not different as only a few candidates got something while the majority got nothing at all.
“In Oyo State, the funds were openly used to campaign for an opposition party. All they were after was the presidential election. That is why the PDP, apart from losing governorship seats, has no single seat in the state House of Assembly. An aggrieved aspirant said: “This is worst election for PDP since the advent of democratic rule”
Another source close to one of the candidates in the House of Assembly election in the state confirmed that the candidate and others were not given any money for the election despite the fact that some leaders of the party collected the money meant for the state in Abuja.
The majority of the party’s candidates who were denied the funds have started compiling their findings on the disbursement of the funds for onward presentation to the NWC for action.
There were claims and counter-claims over the actual amount of fund that was released to the party’s governorship candidate in the state, Senator Teslim Folarin, at the threshold of the poll in the state.
A source claimed that a sum of N100 million was released to him through an important figure in the presidency a few days to the April 11 governorship poll, though the source could not confirm if the money came from the PDP headquarters.
However, another source claimed that N80 million was, indeed, released to the candidate from Abuja.
The N80 million was corroborated by one of the candidates for the state House of Assembly on the ticket of the PDP.
The source claimed that the governorship candidate showed an evidence of the electronic cash transfer to him, ostensibly to douse insinuations that he had been consistently heavily mobilised financially for the election.
In Lagos State, there is still pervasive anger over the manner in which the campaign funds from Abuja were managed.
Some leaders claimed that they were sidelined, allegedly by a camp comprising loyalists of the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro.
Out of a sum of N200 million reportedly released shortly before the presidential poll on March 28 for campaign, a total of N65 million was allegedly used to procure bags of rice, which was re-bagged into one kilogramme bags and distributed as campaign “carrots.”
The crisis of confidence among the leaders was reportedly aggravated by mushroom groups floated by some chieftains that were well funded, allegedly by Abuja to run parallel campaign organisations for the PDP in the state.
According to sources, the entire funding of the Lagos PDP was shrouded in secrecy because of the influence of some notable PDP members, who made sure the party elders and other major stakeholders were kept in the dark in respect of the actual amount of fund released from Abuja, when it was released and received and how it was managed.
Coupled with this was the huge number of pressure groups, the membership of which comprised traders, artisans, road transport workers, representatives of ethnic groups, political associations, youth organisations, quasi-professional bodies and artistes, who said they preferred dealing directly with the president in respect of funds to mobilise the grassroots for him in the state in order not to be short-changed by some “unscrupulous” party members and their agents.
A close aide of the Lagos PDP governorship candidate, who preferred anonymity, claimed unaware that the PDP presidential campaign organisation disbursed the said sum of N100 million to his principal, Mr Jimi Agbaje, towards the governorship poll, contrary to the assertion by Chief Metuh.
The PDP had, on December 20, 2014, realised a total of N21.27 billion from a fundraising dinner organised for President Goodluck Jonathan at the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa.
It was reported that the chairman on the occasion, Tunde Ayeni, led the line of huge donations by announcing the sum of N2 billion – N1 billion from him and his partner, and another N1 billion from “friends” whom he did not name.
A sector-by-sector review of the donations shows that oil and gas executives gave N5 billion, while those in real estate and building donated N4 billion.
Those in transport and aviation donated N1 billion, food and agriculture N500 million; power N500 million and construction N310million. A total of N250 million came from road construction, while Shelter Development Limited gave N250 million. PDP governors announced a donation of N50 million each, amounting to N1.05 billion.
“Questions are now being asked on how this money was spent, or if not yet spent, who is holding it”; said a PDP leader.
We’ll expose saboteurs, be fair to all – PDP post-elections panel
Senator Ike Ekweremadu-led post-elections review committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday, vowed to expose all party members that sabotaged the victory of the party in the last general election.
Addressing journalists in Abuja, the secretary of the committee, who is also the secretary of the party’s Board of Trustees, Senator Walid Jubrin, however, gave the assurance that the committee would be fair to all and appealed to all warring party members to “cool temper and allow the committee to look into all contending issues that led to the party’s misfortune at the polls.”
Jubrin denied speculations in some quarters that the committee did not enjoy the blessings of major stakeholders of the party before it was set up by the party’s NWC, saying, “the committee got the blessings of President Jonathan, Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Board of Trustees chairman, Tony Anenih and the Senate President, David Mark,” as soon as it was inaugurated.
Among other things, the committee is mandated to investigate the immediate and remote causes of the failure of the party at the 2015 polls and ascertain the “degree of anti-party activities, compromises and outright sabotage that may have contributed to the misfortunes of our party at the elections.”
It also has the mandate of looking at “the funding of the elections to determine whether or not the funds meant for the campaigns were adequate and whether disbursements were properly done.”
But Jubrin, who described the assignment given to the committee as very important, said “we will be very fair to all. We will not leave any stone unturned. We will not fear anybody. Anybody who is found wanting, we will say so and we will state what we have found.”
He appealed to aggrieved members to be calm, saying that it would be unfair to pre-empt the outcome of the committee’s investigations.
He added that the PDP was ready for repairs.
“We have accepted we are in the opposition and our opposition will be fair and not crude with reasoning and logic. It will be fruitful for Nigerians. We won’t abuse anybody,” he said.
He noted that the three weeks timeframe given to the committee by the party would be extended if necessary.
Other terms of reference of the committee are “to trace the origin and process of the seeming decline of the party in its electoral performance; to take a critical look at the preparations and build-up of the PDP to the general election and determine its adequacies and lapses; and to review and determine the adequacy of the structures for the 2015 general election and how those structures functioned.
Others are “to identify different groups in the party who were to play critical roles before and during the elections and determine the effectiveness or otherwise; to determine any other matter that may be considered necessary and in the interest of the party; and to propose a road map for the party to recover its past glory and definitely win the general election in 2019.”
Credit: Tribune
