Disgruntled workers of the Peoples Democratic Party have accused the members of the party’s National Working Committee of wastefully spending N12bn in nine months.
The irate workers revealed that out of the said money, N11bn was made from the sale of nomination forms while N1bn was gotten from the sale of delegates forms.
The workers came out to make the disclosure as a result 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.
National Secretary of the PDP, Prof. Wale Oladipo, sent out a letter to this effect on Wednesday, July 29, stating that the decision, among others, would take effect from August.
Oladipo had said in the letter: “Establishment staff who would remain are required to obtain individual letters of revalidation from their state chapters within one month of this circular to their suitability for service at the national secretariat.”
However, after a meeting in Abuja on Thursday, July 30, the workers sent a response to Oladipo’s letter.
Their letter to Oladipo read in part,
“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.”
“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 directives for staff members to get revalidation letters from the state chapters 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.”
