The Peoples Democratic Party National Working Committee has refunded the housing allowance paid to them by the national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu.
According to The Punch, the NWC wrote Ayu to refund the allowance following a report that N10 billion was missing from the party’s nomination form sales.
Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike accused Ayu of collecting the sum of N1 billion from an unnamed Lagos presidential aspirant.
The report claimed that following the resignation call by Wike’s loyalists, Ayu, in a bid to pacify the NWC members, paid the sum of N28m to each member.
However, recent developments had it that some NWC members had started remitting various amounts to the party.
A member of the NWC told Newshound how some of them got the funds.
“You know that because of criminal elements in the land, some of us did not activate our mobile phone bank alerts. When one, unfortunately, falls into the hands of these criminals, the first thing they do is to check your bank account. They will demand twice what they find there as a condition to release you.
“So, I encouraged my fellow NWC members to visit their various banks to activate the alert notification on their phones. That is how we discovered the monies in our accounts,” he claimed.
He also claimed that the national chairman did not inform the NWC members about the funds paid into their accounts until it was reported in the media.
He explained how the money was paid into NWC members’ accounts.
“A Deputy National Chairman got N36m, another one got N36m too. Another top NWC member got N36m. The rest of us got N28m each. We are 19 in all.”
In another letter titled, “Credit of twenty-eight million, eight hundred thousand naira paid into my bank account number, 3098567123 by the PDP,” and addressed to the national chairman, one of the NWC members who returned his money wrote, “Please, be informed that the said payment has become a subject of media story carried with bad intention by them.
“I hereby inform you of the refund of the sum of N28,800,000 back to the PDP account number, 1000095003 at Globus Bank Plc. The receipt of the payment back to the account is attached.”
Another letter titled, “Return of N36 million Housing Allowance paid into my account,” read in part, “I observed a malicious story reported in the newspaper of 26th September 2022 where it was alleged that members of the NWC were offered humungous amount of money to silent us on an allegation of financial misappropriation to the tune of N15bn.
“This led me to browse through my various alerts and I discovered a transfer into my account and for personal reasons, wish to return it accordingly.
“Kindly confirm the receipt of UBA electronic transfer of N36m attached herewith. The letter was copied by the party’s National Secretary.”
