PDP crisis Shock, disbelief as fraud allegations unsettle Ayu, Atiku. Chief Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is anticipated to return to Nigeria today, Friday, despite serious corruption accusations around his office. That may not be true of his return journey, though, since his PDP colleagues on the National Working Committee, NWC, have made alarming admissions since he left the nation for Europe, in contrast to when he left with great fanfare.
Just a week prior, Nyesom Wike, the governor of Rivers State, accused Ayu of indulging in corrupt activities in what looks to be blowing the lead.
Few people believed Wike’s accusations, though, given his protracted conflict with the party chairman since since the party’s presidential primary contest, which Wike lost to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. In response to inquiries from media, Wike said that Ayu received N1 billion from one of the party’s presidential candidates.
The chairman cannot dispute that he got the money but refused to transfer it to the party’s account, he said, adding that Ayu is crooked.
Ayu is incredibly dishonest. I have complete knowledge. Ayu has the chance to challenge me, and I’ll tell you who.
“Some governors can tell you, I’m sure. Will he refute the claim that Lagos wasn’t where he got the N1 billion? If he objects, I will point out that the money did not come from the Lagos State Government and that it was instead handed to him in Lagos. In a meeting with a presidential contender, he expressed his uncertainty about the governors’ desire to serve as the party’s sponsors.
We are not criticizing Ayu on the grounds that the money did not enter the PDP’s account.
Wike fired a powerful cannonball, but Ayu, who was traveling abroad, didn’t respond.
At least four members of the Ayu-led NWC rejected strange funds that were deposited into their accounts on Thursday, however, while Nigerians were still waiting for Ayu to respond to the serious accusations.
Over N122 million worth of the money has already been sent back to the PDP account, and each of the receivers left a letter for Ayu.
Olasoji Adagunodo, National Vice Chairman (South-West), Taofeek Arapaja, National Vice Chairman (South), Chief Dan Orbih, and Prof. Stella Affah-Attoe, National Women Leader, were among those who returned the funds.
According to information in their letters, Arapaja received N36 million, Adagunodo, Orbih, and Effah-Attoe each received N28.8 million.
“My attention has been directed to a detrimental trending item carried in THE NATION Newspaper by Yusuf Alli on September 26, 2022 headed ‘Disquiet in PDP NW over N10 billion nomination fees,'” Orbih said in the letter he sent to Ayu. He claimed, among other things, that NWC members were given N28 million to cover up flagrant financial mismanagement.
“To my amazement and surprise, my bank has certified that the party has credited my account with the amount of N28, 800,000 (twenty eight million eight hundred thousand Naira). I hereby inform you of my decision to credit the party’s account with the money.
Please acknowledge receipt of the following Zenith Bank Manager’s checks for the Party’s account: N10,000,000, N10,000,000, and N8,800,000. Globus Bank PLC, A/C: 1000095003.
According to DAILY POST, several NWC members wrote Ayu identical letters expressing their disapproval of the dubious money.
One of them, Effah-Attoe said, was informed the funds were intended for her two-year rent after she enquired about them.
But she claimed that phone calls from party members, friends, family members, and members of the public suggested that the money was a bribe intended “to bring me and other NWC members on the side of The National Chairman, following the crisis between him on the one side and the Governor of Rivers State, H.E. Governor Nyesom Wike/Group Wike’s on the other side”
According to reports, the situation has alarmed the PDP’s upper echelons, including Atiku Abubakar’s camp, which views the unfolding events as unfavorable for the party, particularly as the election season gets underway.
“Recall that massive corruption in governance was one of the reasons the party was kicked out in 2015; this is now taking place.
“There is unease everywhere; it seems as though Wike was correct after all.
This is unfortunate because it would be hard for the party to go and discuss anti-corruption with voters when its house is tarnished by several unresolved fraud claims.
Since the majority of party officials are shocked by this development, the national chairman should resign as soon as possible. Wike is no longer the focus of this. Ayu need to just concede if he truly has the party’s best interests at heart. It would be challenging to clear up this mess before the election, the top party source added. “There is no way he can lead the party into a general election with this sort of baggage.”
The PDP leadership has remained silent on these accusations as of the time this story was filed.
HURIWA tells Ayu: “Resign, and turn yourself up to the EFCC.”
The PDP’s recent events, according to civil rights activist Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Coordinator of the Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, show that the party has not evolved from its previous practices.
The proper course of action, according to Onwubiko, was for Ayu to resign and turn himself in to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC.
“The corruption discovered in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as disclosed by some notable leaders and members of the party’s National Executive Committee who refunded enormous bribes paid into their accounts allegedly by Iyorchia Ayu shows that it is difficult for a Leopard to change its color,” he asserted.
“The PDP and the All Progressives Congress are twin evils because there is no accountability or transparency in either party’s leadership, and this is because both parties’ chairmen rose to power by corrupt means.
“PDP Chairman should resign and turn himself in to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for investigation and potential prosecution, in order to do his party a favor.
It is a real tragedy that the PDP, which needs to work hard to convince people of its will to unseat President Muhammadu Buhari’s completely corrupt and power-crazed administration, is itself undermined by avarice, greed, and corruption.
Voters in Nigeria have a significant chance to be resolute to oust both the PDP and
