Barely 48 hours to the take off of the 2023 election campaigns, another crisis has hit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over how the bulk of the over N10 billion realised by the party from nomination fees paid by aspirants have been spent.
The National Working Committee (NWC) has been put to task over the nomination fees, it was learnt on Sunday.
Some NWC members have raised concerns about the depletion of the cash from over N10billion to N1billion.
It was learnt that some forces were trying to offer each NWC member N28millon to gloss over the huge cash in order not to cause any fresh crisis in the party.
Sources said the N28million offer was purportedly rejected by NWC members, who were said to have insisted on proper accountability.
There were indications yesterday that the aggrieved camp of Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike was pushing for accountability to increase the pressure on the National Chairman of the party, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, to resign.
Also worried by threats from Wike’s supporters, the PDP vice presidential candidate, Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, at the weekend rushed to a former President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, to intervene to douse the tension.
Okowa was said to be disturbed by the plot by Wike’s camp to boycott the activities of PDP’s Presidential Campaign Council (PCC).
PDP had fixed its presidential nomination form and expression of interest forms for N40 million, governorship N21 million, Senate N3.5 million, House of Representatives N2.5 million and House of Assembly N600, 000.
Investigation revealed that in the past few weeks, NWC members had been agitating for the wherabouts of the cash.
According to sources, some NWC members have been threatening to stay away from their statutory meeting and campaign.