The National Working Committee (NWC) members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday abandoned their duties at the party’s national secretariat, Abuja.
This followed the resolve by Board of Trustees (BoT) and National Executive Committee (NEC) members of the party that they must throw in the towel and allow peace to reign in the party.
The BoT and the NEC members, who held a meeting in Abuja also questioned the eligibility and moral right of the NWC members to implement the report of the PDP post-election review committee headed by Deputy Senate President Senator Ike Ekweremadu which is to be delivered this month.
A member of the party’s BoT who craved anonymity disclosed to journalists, yesterday, that some BoT and NEC members held a meeting in Abuja and resolved that the NWC members must resign in view of the fact that they were tarnishing the party’s image and chances of winning future elections.
The NWC through the party’s national secretary, Professor Wale Oladipo had issued a secular to some staff of the party at its national secretariat informing them of possibly disengaging them, while others receive half salaries.
But last Friday, the aggrieved workers addressed a press conference in which they accused the NWC of financial corruption and called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and other anti-corruption agencies to probe them, insisting they must resign.
The source said: “the feeling among BoT and NEC members is that since members of the NWC led the party to such an unprecedented defeat after 16 years of PDP leadership at the centre, they should have done the honourable thing and resigned to allow others to come in and rebuild the party from the ruins of the last election. What if the Ekweremadu’s committee indicts the NWC? They cannot be judgeds in their own case,” he said.
Worried by this development, the NWC were said to have opted for dialogue and while away from the secretariat instructed a team including directors who held a meeting for several hours with leaders of the Workers Welfare Committee and were scheduled to meet with the NWC members at undisclosed location in Abuja to relate to them what they discussed with the workers.
It was gathered that the BoT will likely give approval for the revalidation of the workers to weed out those that are suspected to be moles in the party.
The source said: “some of the workers were brought into the party by their godfathers who have since defected to the APC. Our fear is that these workers who owe allegiance to the godfathers that facilitated their employment in PDP will be passing sensitive information and documents to their godfathers in the APC.”
In a dramatic twist however, operatives of the Department of State Service (DSS) were seen at the premises of the PDP national secretariat at about 12.15pm where they played a surveillance role and left about 30 minutes after.
Presently, the workers are threatening to release several documents on how the NWC looted the party’s treasury in phases if the impasse is not resolved.
