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.
Out of the total
sum, the workers said N11bn was realised from the sale of nomination forms
while N1bn accrued from the sale of delegates forms.
They alleged that
the money was squandered shortly after the sale of the forms commenced on
October 27, 2014 till date.
The workers said
this in their response to a letter sent to them by the party’s National
Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, on Wednesday.
Oladipo, in the
letter, had informed the workers about the decision of the NWC to reduce the
party’s workforce by 50 per cent 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.”
But the workers,
after a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, sent a reply to Oladipo.
Their reply,
which was directed to Oladipo, was dated July 30, 2015 and 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 our corespondent, to former
President Goodluck Jonathan and the acting Chairman, Board of Trustees of the
party, Alhaji Haliru Bello.
Also, copies were
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
mess.
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.”
They explained
that they were aware that the NWC members were in the habit of paying
themselves huge sums of money after the party lost power during the 2015
general elections.
The letter read
further, “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.
However, the
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, told our
correspondent that the party took the decisions because it realised that
majority of the workers had lost touch with their state chapters of the party.
