Chief Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is anticipated to return to Nigeria today, Friday, despite serious corruption allegations around his office.
That may not be true of his return journey, though, as his PDP colleagues on the National Working Committee, NWC, have made alarming admissions since he left the country 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 appears 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 journalists, Wike said that Ayu received N1 billion from one of the party’s presidential candidates.
The chairman cannot deny that he got the money but refused to transfer it to the party’s account, he continued, adding that Ayu is crooked.
“Ayu is very corrupt. I’m totally informed. Ayu has the opportunity to challenge me, I will name the person.
“Some of the governors can tell you. Will he deny the fact that he didn’t collect N1 billion from Lagos? Let him deny it, I will tell him who gave him the money not from the Lagos state government, the money was given to him in Lagos.
“He met one of the presidential candidates and told him that he’s not sure these governors may want to sponsor the party.
“That money did not enter into the account of PDP, but we are not attacking Ayu on that basis.”
Wike fired a powerful cannonball, but Ayu, who was travelling 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 transferred back to the PDP account, and each of the receivers left a note for Ayu.
Olasoji Adagunodo, National Vice Chairman (South-West), Taofeek Arapaja, Deputy National Chairman (South), Chief Dan Orbih, National Vice Chairman (South) 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.
Orbih, in the letter he addressed to Ayu said, “My attention has been drawn to a damaging trending story reported in THE NATION Newspaper by Yusuf Alli on September 26, 2022 titled ‘Disquiet in PDP NW over N10 billion nomination fees.’ Amongst several other allegations, he alleged that members of the NWC were offered N28 million to gloss over scandalous financial misappropriation.
“To my shock and surprise, it has been confirmed to me by my bank that the sum of N28, 800,000. (Twenty eight million eight hundred thousand Naira) has been credited to my account by the party. I hereby notify you of my decision to pay back the money to the party’s account.
“Kindly confirm receipt of Zenith Bank Manager’s cheques of: N10,000,000, N10,000,000, N8,800,000 TOTAL = N28,800,000 to the Party’s account. A/C: 1000095003, Globus Bank PLC.”
According to PulseNets, several NWC members wrote Ayu similar letters expressing their disapproval of the dubious money.
One of them, Effah-Attoe claimed, was informed the funds were intended for her two-year rent after she enquired about them.
She asserted, however, that calls she received from party members, friends, family, and the general public suggested the money was a bribe “to bring me and other NWC members on the side of The National Chairman, following the crisis between him on one side and the Governor of Rivers State, H.E Governor Nyesom Wike/ Wike’s Group 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 unfavourable for the party, particularly as the election season gets underway.
“Remember that one of the reasons the party was voted out in 2015 was owing to monumental corruption in governance; now this is happening.
“The feeling everywhere is that Wike has been proved right; there is disquiet everywhere.
“This is happening at a very bad time because it will be difficult for the party to go and talk to the electorates about anti-corruption when its house is tainted with several unresolved fraud allegations.
“Frankly, most of the party leaders are in shock over this development and the most honourable thing for the national chairman to do now is to resign. This is no longer about Wike. If Ayu has the interest of the party at heart, he should just give way.
“There is no way he can lead the party into a general election with this kind of baggage; it will be difficult to clean this mess before the election,” the top party source said.
The PDP leadership has remained silent regarding these accusations as of the time this report was filed.
HURIWA tells Ayu: “Resign, and turn yourself over 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 practises.
The appropriate course of action, according to Onwubiko, was for Ayu to quit and turn himself in to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, or EFCC, in an interview with PulseNets.
According to him, “The corruption unearthed in the hierarchy of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as disclosed by some notable leaders and members of the National Executive Committee of the party who refunded humongous bribes paid into their account allegedly by Iyorchia Ayu shows that it is difficult for a Leopard to change its colour.
“Both the PDP and the All Progressives Congress are twin evils because in both of their leaderships there is total absence of accountability and transparency and this is because of how the Chairmen of these parties emerged through corrupt means.
“PDP Chairman should do his party the favour of resigning and handing himself over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, for investigation and possible prosecution.
“It is a crying shame that the PDP that ought to work hard to convince voters about its determination to push out the absolutely corrupt and power drunk government of President Muhammadu Buhari is itself weakened by avarice, greed and corruption.
“It’s a big opportunity for voters in Nigeria to be determined to sack both the PDP and the APC.”
