National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Olisa Metuh is angry with the un-named aides of President Goodluck Jonathan who have been trying to cause crisis in the party so that they would hijack it, describing them as divisive elements.
He accused them of flying all sorts of allegation against the members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.
Addressing newsmen today at his Wadata House office in Abuja, Metuh said that the Presidential aides have accused members of the NWC of misappropriating the Presidential campaign fund, saying: “when this wicked and baseless allegation was debunked by the NWC who publicly clarified that it was not involved in the handling of the campaign and its funding, and that such were exclusively managed by the Presidential Campaign Organization appointed by the President, these divisive elements in their desperation came up with another allegation claiming that the leadership embezzled funds belonging to the party.
“Even after the NWC also debunked this despicable allegation, showing that the party’s funds were judiciously appropriated for our state election campaigns, this group resorted to labeling the NWC with attempts to instigate President Jonathan, PDP governors and other well-meaning members of our party against the national leadership.”
Metuh blamed part of the reason for defeat of President Jonathan in the election on part of the hate campaigns adopted by the Presidential Campaigns against the opposition presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.
This even as the party’s NWC has vowed to involve competent firm of chartered accountants to investigate its financial transactions within the period of the presidential campaigns even as the party decided to call off the face-off as President Goodluck Jonathan had intervened on in the crisis between it and President’s aides
Metuh said that despite the intervention of President Jonathan into the crisis, the NWCfelt that it is necessary for the party to call for a transparent forensic audit into the finances of the party since the commencement of the presidential and general elections.
He decried the actions of the aides of the President in circulating payment vouchers of housing, furniture and medical allowances of the NWC to the media, stating that it points to the fact that the aides of the president concerned has a heinous agenda against the NWC of the party.
Metuh reiterated that the NWC did not receive any money directly for the 2015 general elections, rather, he said that out of the money generated from the sales of delegate forms, governorship and state and national assembly forms that the party donated the sum of N500 million to the presidential campaign of the party, N100 million each to the 29 governorship candidates of the party.
He acknowledged that the members of the NWC received N30 million each, but said that the money was for their medical, furniture and housing allowances for the past two and half years.
Pressured by reporters to disclose the names of the aides of the President that are behind the hate campaign against the NWC, Metuh declined, saying that President Jonathan has intervened in a meeting held at the presidential villa on Sunday.
But, Metuh said alerted Nigerians that some members of the party, including ambitious aides and associates of President Jonathan, are using their perceived closeness to him to further their heinous agenda of injecting crisis in the party with a view to highjacking the structure for their selfish interests.
“In the attempt to discredit the NWC, these elements pushed out series of misleading information to the unsuspecting public alleging that the party leadership mismanaged the Presidential campaign funds, leading to the poor performance in the polls and as such NWC should be made to resign.” [myad]
