Senator Abdullahi Adamu, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has denied reports that his friends and allies have replaced six suspended departmental directors at the party’s secretariat.
WITHIN NIGERIA, it was learned that Adamu had ordered six directors, including Elder Anietie Offong (Welfare), Bartholomew I. Ugwoke (Research), Abubakar Suleiman (Finance), Dr Suleiman Abubakar (Administration), Salisu Dambatta (Publicity), and Dare Oketade, Legal Head, who was accused of mismanaging N7.7 billion, to go on ‘compulsory annual leave.’
He later formed an investigative panel led by an ex-Governor of Jigawa State, Ali Saad Birnin Kudu, to look into the defunct Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee’s handing-over notes.
The committee’s recommendations compelled Adamu to indefinitely suspend the departmental directors and the head of legal services.
On Thursday, Adamu denied replacing the directors with his cronies in a press conference at the party’s headquarters in Abuja.
While claiming that the move was necessary to sanitize the system, the APC chairman revealed that the ruling party was in disarray when he took over.
He said;
That the report is false. The fact of the matter is, go through the secretariat, there is not one person since we came in here that is my blood relation. Not one, whether primary or part of my extended family.
It is a fallacy (that I have my people working here). In fact, when we came here, it was to reorganize and reconstitute the party. You don’t see the party in a state of mess and look the other way just because you want to be decent and not offend anybody.
Terrible Allergy
Adamu described his encounter with a cesspool of corruption, tardy officials, and a register containing over 200 names, including those of ghost workers.
The APC chairman swore that it was not in his DNA to overlook such anomalies, stressing that his “DNA has a terrible allergy for that.”
He said:
We came and found the party where people are fixing all manners of things. We had a bill of N7.7bn to settle on legal matter alone. We came to find that here everybody was like me, on his own. No control, no system, no due process. Everybody doing what he wanted to do. It is just because you don’t want to be accused of anything that you will allow that kind of people.
My DNA has terrible allergy for that. I am sure most, if not all, my members in the NWC share in this. Of course, every situation of change has a victim of its own and ours is not an exception. And we didn’t do anything with bias or prejudice. The main thing is the interest of the party.’
Recently, we tried to introduce table payment. If you are a member of this chapel, you know we don’t have 200 people working for us here. But if you go through the payroll, we are over 200 people. Who are they? How did they come up on their bill? What are they doing for us? Where are their letters of appointment? What condition of service do they have?
You don’t, because you are afraid of negative media review, ignore this. People went to the market square saying we are arranging salaries but can’t pay. That is very far from the truth. We met and paid some arrears when we came in. I don’t have any qualms about this. We did everything in good faith.
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