Alleged Missing Funds: No Hiding Place For Past PDP Leaders – Ayu Vows

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  • Trouble for Secondus, others over alleged financial misconduct
  • Nwodo demands probe of erring officers by EFCC

BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – Newly elected National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu says there will be no hiding place for past leaders found wanting in the management of huge resources that accrued to the nation’s main opposition party over the years.

In what many are already insinuating as rough days ahead for the embattled immediate past Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus, and his predecessors, Senator Ayu vowed that the new administration is ready to scrutinise the PDP’s financial records as part of measures at enthroning accountability and transparency culture in handling the party affairs.

Speaking with newsmen at PDP National Secretariat in Abuja at the end of a two-day retreat for the National Working Committee (NWC) members-elect, Ayu promised that under his watch, PDP is destined to breathe the fresh air of openness and transparency.

Giving assurances of a new-look PDP, the Benue state-born politician said; “By the time we come to the office, accountability will remain our watchword and I want to assure all of you that we will run the PDP administration as transparently as possible.

“The outgoing NWC has set up different committees to look into different areas. We shall take up all the reports, review them, look at the facts and then attend to each issue according to the facts available to us.

“I want to assure you that we shall try to clean our house no matter who is going to be affected. We shall try to clean our house following due process and that due process also includes exhausting all internal conflict resolving mechanisms before we bring in any external intervention when we cannot resolve the issues.”

The former Senate President also berated President Muhammadu Buhari-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration over the planned increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).

According to him; “The PDP does not believe in visiting more hardship on the Nigerian people. The party has not discussed the issue of an increase in petroleum prices but our general position is that the people of Nigeria are already hard-pressed.

“There is so much hardship. If you are poor, you are not going to benefit from what is called petroleum subsidy.

“I want to assure Nigerians that when we come back to power as a party, everything will be done to make sure that the massive sufferings that Nigerians are going through come to end because if you increase the price of petroleum products today, with the kind of suffering that Nigerians are going through, it means that there will be enormous difficulty in transportation.

“Food prices will escalate and they are already very high out there. You will find that the crime rate will increase. Every single vice which has escalated under the All Progressives Congress (APC) will double. So the APC government is trying to take us into the highest level of suffering and ultimately, taking Nigerians to a position of non-existence.”

Senator Ayu however said to move the PDP forward towards attaining its lofty goals for a better and thriving Nigeria, the new party executives would be exploring alternative sources of funding for the party as well as organizing periodic retreats for officials to keep them abreast of various spheres of party administration.

Ayu’s pledge to sanitize the PDP and give it a new lease of life came on the heels of an intervention by a former Party National chairman, Okwesilize Nwodo, whose paper presentation at the retreat asked questions on what successive administrations did with the huge resources he handed over to the Bello Haliru-led executive committee.

Pointedly Nwodo said; “I handed over N11 billion in fixed deposit and N800 million in current account when I left as National Chairman after seven months. I don’t see what was done with that money.

“Millions were raised to finish our national headquarters; we don’t seem to have a trace of where all that money went. Our headquarters is yet to be completed. Today, we don’t even have a party account. We have to get back to strict monitoring of our party accounts.”

On the way forward, Nwodo said; “Our internal audit department needs to be strengthened and supported by the party leadership. Very strict sanctions must be imposed on the mismanagement of party funds.

“I suggest that we also include inviting the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe erring officers and members as well as prosecution of those found culpable. This is the only way to create a deterrent.”

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