Iyorchia Ayu, the National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), has established an investigation committee to investigate claims that members of the National Working Committee (NWC) received a bribe for receiving housing allowance.
This is a development that occurred following the meeting yesterday to resolve the housing allowance payment crisis, which was presided over by Ayu.
Debo Ologunagba, the PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, made the following statement: “The NWC has resolved to conduct an extensive investigation into the circumstances surrounding the said publication, which reported that the housing allowance legally paid by the party to its National Officers was a bribe.” The NWC will also investigate the source of the said malicious and injurious publication, which was published in The Nation newspaper on September 26, 2022.
The statement says that the report was meant to make Party members and stakeholders unhappy and bring the Party into disrepute in front of its many supporters worldwide, especially in an election year.
The allegation will be investigated by the investigative Committee, which will be led by the party’s National Legal Adviser, Kamaludeen Ajibade SAN. Within a week, the committee will submit a report to the NWC for further action.
According to the statement, the NWC in the session determined that the payment was not a bribe but rather a housing allowance that had been approved and paid to national officers of the party in accordance with the conditions of service and entitlement of the staff and principal officers of the party after conducting a thorough investigation of the payment.
In addition, the NWC established that the payment was processed in accordance with the Party’s existing financial regulations and payment approval procedures.
According to the party, “It is also instructive to state that the national officers who returned their housing allowances equally confirmed and affirmed at the meeting that the payment was not a bribe but their due entitlements in line with the conditions of service and entitlement of the staff and principal officers of the party,” the payment was not a bribe. Instead, it was in accordance with the party’s policies.
According to available reports, other NWC members assaulted their coworkers who returned the allowance to the party coffers.
It should be recalled that Taofeek Arapaja, the PDP’s Deputy National Chairman for the South, and five other individuals returned N122.4 million, which was supposed to be a housing allowance from the party.
After they inquired about the whereabouts of over N10 billion realized as nomination fees during the party’s primaries, which was alleged to have reduced to 1 billion in uncertain circumstances, these NWC members were said to have returned the various amounts of money because they received strange bank credit alerts, resulting in tension within the NWC.
Ibrahim Tsauri, a member of the party’s National Executive Committee, explained why Ayu might be investigated, noting that the chairman’s approval limit is N10 million.
Tsauri confirmed that Ayu’s approval of housing allowances for NWC members is permissible, but that the working committee must approve of such an action.
The financial secretary usually does what the chairman did.The party’s action, in the event that funds are available, is to direct the financial secretary to compile a spending plan for NWC members.They lack compensation;He stated, “they only go with these legitimate allowances.”