Seven former deputy national officers of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have resigned their positions as members of the National Executive Council.
The party chieftains in different letters addressed to its National Secretary on Tuesday alleged being sidelined and unfairly treated by the National Chairman, Uche Secondus.
Some of the executive members include the National Deputy Publicity Secretary, Diran Odeyemi; Deputy National Organising Secretary, Hassan Yakubu; and the Deputy National Woman Leader, Hadizat Umoru.
Others are the Deputy National Auditor Divine Amina Arong; Deputy National Organizing Secretary, Hassan Yakubu; and Deputy National Financial Secretary, Irona Alphonsus.
The officers also attributed their resignation to the incompetence of the PDP National Chairman, Prince Uche Secondus.
One of the officers cited bad treatment by the Secondus led National Working Committee (NWC) leadership of the deputies, since they were elected in 2017.
“Since our election in 2017, we (deputy national officers) have only met with Secondus thrice. It is not as if he called us; on those three occasions, we sought audience with him.
“To him, we are just a necessary evil to be tolerated but never to be catered for. We all have our constituencies and our followers.
“It appears they see us as nothing but appendages forced on them by the party’s constitution,” he said.
This latest event fuels the crisis rocking the leadership of the party after a former spokesperson of the party’s presidential Campaign, Kasim Afegbua, accused the chairman and the leadership of series of offences.
Afegbua had called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in April, to probe the party’s leadership.
He visited the offices of the anti-corruption agencies to submit his petition and asked them to look into the financial transactions of Mr Secondus, in the spirit of transparency, accountability, and book-keeping, in line with the existing anti-corruption laws.
He also alleged that much of the financial transactions of the PDP under its present leadership have been shrouded in mystery and accused the leadership of a deliberate attempt to short-change the party in the build-up to the 2023 general elections.
In the petition, he asked the anti-graft agencies to scrutinise close to N10 billion that was allegedly accrued to the party’s purse from 2017 till date, especially those that were as a result of sales of nomination forms for presidential, governorship, House of Assembly, and senatorial elections.
Afegbua alleged that the national chairman avoided the use of the party’s bank accounts and used one Morufu Nigeria Limited as a conduit pipe for financial mismanagement in the sales of forms in 2019.
He, therefore, stressed the need for the party’s leadership to lead by example by ensuring transparency and accountability.
