On Friday, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the national chairman of the People's Democratic Party, refuted the governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who has repeatedly claimed to have received N1 billion from a presidential candidate.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president and current
candidate for president of the PDP, offered that the party take out a loan for
N1 billion when Ayu took office as the party's chairman and wanted to raise
money for the party, but the National Working Committee rejected the plan after
discussion.
He claimed he abstained from responding to Wike's
accusations against him to prevent any public disputes that may make the situation
for the party more complicated.
In a media interview on September 23, Wike accused Ayu of
receiving N1 billion from a presidential contender, which, in his opinion,
helped Atiku become the party's front-runner.
"Can Ayu claim he didn't obtain N1 billion from Lagos?
He claimed to know "how the money was arranged and those engaged in
packaging the money" and claimed to have advised one of the PDP
presidential candidates before the primaries that the governors were not
prepared to pay the party. He has $1 billion; let him come up and inform
Nigerians that it is untrue; I will then divulge more”.
In his most recent media appearance on Friday, the governor
stated that he stood by his assertion and added that the party chairman had
allegedly taken N100 million from a governor to repair the Peoples Democratic
Institute, a party subsidiary, before returning to the party to take the same
sum.
When the BoT Chairman, Senator Adolphus Wabara, presented
the findings of his reconciliation committee during a special Board of Trustees
meeting at the party's headquarters, Ayu responded to the governor's claims,
calling the repeated attacks on his character sad.
He said, "I am not supposed to add anything more when
my BoT chairman speaks. But given that these accusations have continued, I'd
like to take this chance to set the record straight. I made the choice not to
respond when the initial accusation against the N1bn was made since we didn't
want to start a fight at the celebration. To be clear, I never received any N1
billion from anyone while serving as this party's national chairman. So I
declare that I have never received N1 billion from anyone. Additionally, the
N100 million donation from one of the governors was wisely utilised for its
intended goal. We will be inviting all party leaders, in the coming weeks.
includes media representatives, for the PDI's debut.
"The incumbent presidential candidate advised the party
to obtain a loan from a bank for N1 billion when we entered the picture and the
party was having financial problems. Additionally a powerful party member, the
owner of that bank. "When we talked about it with him, we scrapped the
proposal, and the party never accepted a loan or money from anyone. I have
never personally collected N1 billion from anyone. Before the National Working
Committee, all monies advanced to the party were declared and given to the
national treasurer of the party.
He emphasized that the party continued to conduct its
business in a transparent manner and that it would keep to its commitment to
release its audited financial statements to the public by December.
In addition, Ayu addressed Wike's claim that he received
N100m from a governor and the party to move the PDI.
"Ayu got N100 million from a governor. Let him (Ayu)
respond that it is false, and I'll let you know who the governor is. The
governor stated during Friday's media conference that these are facts that most
people are unaware of.
Ayu said, "Fortunately, I had properly informed the
board that one of our governors made a contribution of N100m to the
resuscitation of the Peoples Democratic Institute, which was housed in a portacabin,"
in his statement. And we informed them that we had found a suitable location in
Asokoro, restored it, and furnished it.
"We went there two or three days ago to assess the
location, and the NWC agreed that even before the governor in question took
office, we should invite him to come to see what we had done with his money.
I'm pleased to report that the party's national secretary afterward sent that
governor a letter.
Therefore, it is untrue. I never collected any funds from
the party to complete the renovation, and neither did the NWC. In actuality,
the governor's donation of N100m has not even been used up.
Save my family,
please
Wike has been ordered to keep his family out of party
disputes in the interim by the party chairman.
He was responding to Wike's claim that his children would
reject him if he shared everything he knew about Ayu.
During the press conference, Wike remarked that if it
weren't for the support of the party, Ayu's children would tell him that he was
no longer their father.
No comments:
Post a Comment