The Tinubu/Southwest Media Veterans Support Group views the news making the rounds that members of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) are now falling over themselves to return tens of millions of Naira that was credited into their accounts without their knowledge or any justifiable reason from the leadership of the party with grave concern. This is indeed a sad development.
We are being told that those who have so far returned the money, with official letters written to back these returns, alleged that the bribes paid to them came from the “proceeds of the N10bn sale of nomination forms.” They were also told that the money was for their “house rents.”
This arbitrary sharing of other people’s money (if it’s actually from the proceeds of nomination forms) is a sad reminder that the PDP may be too far gone in the kleptomaniac predilection of its apparatchiks, reminiscent of “Dasukigate” in the twilight of the Jonathan administration and that the party is irredeemable, just as Atiku himself had warned the nation about the party in one of his nomadic political outings that has now become a trademark in his political life.
The question we’re then asking, which Nigerians should also ask, is; if these monies are actually from the “sale of nomination forms,” why didn’t the party leadership return them to those who bought the nomination forms especially in light of the primary election now known to the world as having been predetermined and highly orchestrated to favour Alhaji Atiku Abubakar?
This development also shows what the PDP government would be if it comes to power again (but God forbid) when Nigerians are already witnessing what they’re adept at at a time that’s not yet morning on creation day.
What’s now unfolding before our very eyes is not only a morbid fascination with thievery, but also reckless impunity of the party’s top hierarchy in which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar is patently helpless, if not in cahoot, because they’re taking after their own presidential candidate in the only game he knows too well, as attested to by his former boss that the former vice president had stolen enough money to feed “300 million people for 400 years.”
This is another reason why the Waziri Adamawa should be roundly rejected at the February 25, 2023 poll.
FEMI ODERE is Spokesperson for Tinubu/Southwest Media Veterans Support Group