Nigeria’s former ruling party, the PDP, is in dire financial straits, we can confirm.
Except that it is no longer news anymore.
In the course of the week, we had brought you the story that the party has been unable to pay its accommodation rent in Ekiti State.
Midweek, PDP National Secretary, Wale Oladipo wrote to workers in the party, intimating them of the belt tightening measures which will now become the order of the day in the party.
READ: Two Months After Relinquishing 16 Years Of Power (And Money), The PDP Is ‘Broke’
In brass tack terms, Oladipo, in the letter, had informed the workers of 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.
But the workers are having none of it.
The Punch reports that the workers replied Oladipo, wondering where all the money the PDP made while in power at the center, has gone to. The workers have accused the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party of frittering away billions of Naira in sale of forms that accrued to the party, recently.
Copies of the letter from the irate staff were sent 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, according to the Punch.
The workers wrote;
“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 said 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.
The post PDP Workers Accuse Their ‘Ogas At The Top’ Of Blowing N12bn; Kick Against Salary Cut appeared first on Ekekeee.