More facts emerged yesterday about the crises crippling the
ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Besides the power struggle, there is a disagreement over an
end-of-year “palliative” for the National Working Committee (NWC) .

The palliative row has pitched eight deputy members of the NWC
against the 12 members, who run the party at the National Secretariat.

But National Chairman Alhaji Bamanga Tukur will today hold a
“frank session” with the deputy NWC members.

The G-84 members have written President Goodluck Jonathan,
raising the alarm that the party is stinking.

G-84 comprises the eight deputy members of the National Working
Committee (NWC), 24 ex-officio members, 37 state chairmen and some former
leaders.

They alleged that the NWC is becoming “cultish”, with total
exclusion of elected officers.

They begged President Jonathan, as the national leader of PDP,
to save the party from brinkmanship.

They claimed that their letter had nothing to do with the
ongoing feud between Tukur and the sacked National Secretary, Prince Olagunsoye
Oyinlola.

They said they are not in support of Tukur or Oyinlola. All they
want is sanity in the party, the group said.

The crux of the crisis in PDP, which also borders partly on the
palliative, emerged from the letter written to the President by G-84.

An influential member of the G-84, who spoke in confidence,
said: “Greed is a major challenge facing the party. We also have problem of
management of funds.

“For example, when deputy NWC members were sidelined, we took
our case to one of our leaders who said we should do a memo for end of year
palliative.

“But as soon as the money was released, the National Chairman
got N7.5million end-of-year gift, the Deputy National Chairman and Secretary
received N6million each; each member of the NWC was given N5million and
National Vice-Chairmen got N2.5million each.

“As for the eight deputy members of the NWC who initiated the
end-of-year palliative, each of them was allotted N150, 000. The amount offered
to us was least expected. We unanimously wrote a letter of rejection to the
National Chairman.

“The chairman is on N2m per month, Deputy National Chairman and
National Secretary earn N1.5m, and other NWC members get N1.2m each. In
addition, the NWC members get N100, 000 to N150, 000 per sitting.

“At a point, one NWC member used to collect N10million every
month for sundry issues until the National Chairman stopped it following
observations that the money was not being properly utilised.

“Apart from salaries and allowances by the 12 NWC members, each
of them got a car loan of N8million, furniture allowance of N5million, and
annual rent of between N12million and N5million. But none of the deputy members
of the NWC got anything, in spite of the high cost of living in Abuja .

“Since we were all elected, the deputy members of NWC only got
N50, 000 in July 2012 when we had the last NEC meeting. As a sign of rejection,
they allocated only one office to deputy NWC members some of who were former
Senators, members of the House of Representatives, ex-Ambassadors and
ex-commissioners in their states.

“Deputy members of the NWC do not receive anything at the end of
the month. No sitting allowance. Yet we have to rent houses in Abuja and feed
our families too.

“The Presidency also gave NWC and their deputies 14 chairmanship
slots for boards of parastatals and 55 membership. The 12 NWC members shared
everything among themselves without anything for their deputies.

“You can see why there is tension constantly in the party. There
is gross injustice among elected officers of the party. The PDP is in a
tinder-box. Those leading us are selfish. The President must ensure justice.”

Besides the palliative palaver, the G-84 members also
highlighted alleged breaches of the party’s constitution

An investigation by our correspondent revealed that the G-84
wrote the letter on January 19, 2013 to the President.

Copies of the letter were sent to the Vice-President, the
President of the Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the
Secretary of the Board of Trustees, among others.

It was gathered that it was on the strength of the letter and
the directive of the President that Tukur will meet with the deputy members of the
NWC today.

It was learnt that before resorting to writing the President,
the G-84 members, led by the deputy members of the NWC had met with Tukur and
Oyinlola four times on their grievances but no action was taken to address the
issues.

The deputy members of the NWC are the Deputy National Secretary;
Deputy National Treasurer; Deputy National Financial Secretary; Deputy National
Organising Secretary; Deputy National Legal Adviser; Deputy National Publicity
Secretary; Deputy National Auditor; Deputy National Woman Leader and Deputy
National Youth Leader.

According to sources, the aggrieved members had on November 28,
2012 met with Vice-President Namadi Sambo on the challenges facing the party.

The issues tabled before the President by the G-84 are as follows:

•breach of PDP constitution by not holding National Executive
Committee(NEC) meeting;

•wrongful and consistent misinterpretation of PDP constitution;

•management of the party in a cultish nature;

•exclusion of elected party officers by NWC;

•wasting of party resources on personal events, functions, and
chartering of aircraft;

•fixing of wages and allowances by NWC members to the detriment
of other elected officers; and

•arbitrary sharing of honourarium both in cash and kind.

A top source in G-84, who spoke in confidence, said: “We have
met with the National Chairman and National Secretary four times but nothing
has been done on issues we have raised.

“We are unhappy with the cultish nature in which the affairs of
the party are being conducted by the NWC with total exclusion of other elected
officials. The party is really stinking; things are not being done properly. We
itemised all the infractions of the NWC in our letter.

“One of our grouses is wrongful and consistent misinterpretation
of PDP constitution. The recent suspension of the National Vice-Chairman,
North-East, Senator Girigiri Lawal, by the NWC was done in line with Article 29
Section 2(b) but without adequate reference to Article 57. The NWC has been
arrogating to itself the power it does not have.

“At least, due process was not followed in exercising
disciplinary action against the National Vice-Chairman. It means the NWC can
wake up one day to suspend either the President or the Vice-President. This
same attitude made the NWC to revolt against Tukur on January 11, 2013.

“We also noticed consistent breach of the party’s constitution
by not holding NEC meetings. Article 31, Section 4 of the party’s constitution
says that ‘NEC shall meet at least once per quarter.’ The last NEC meeting was
held in July 2012.

“These breaches and grievances accounted for the delay in
convening NEC meetings because members are angry. People talk of Tukur being
afraid of the PDP governors as the main reason for not summoning NEC. But I
think the fear of the revolt of G-84 members is behind the foot-dragging on NEC
meeting.

“We have threatened to pass vote of no confidence and walk out
if our grievances are not addressed.

“Mr. President is a good man; he wants the party put on sound
footing in a democratic manner but the present crop of NWC members prefers
cultish style.”

Responding to a question, another source in G-84 said: “The
situation in Wadata (PDP National Headquarters) does not show fairness. We are
meeting the National Chairman at our request and based on the intervention of
the President.

“This audience with Tukur on Monday has nothing to do with the
crisis of confidence between him and Oyinlola at all.

“For instance, the party leadership has excluded deputy members
of the NWC from the conduct of the affairs of PDP. Yet, they were all elected
in March 2012 together.

“Our agitation has no sympathy for the chairman or Oyinlola. If
they listen to our agitation, it means peace and more cordiality between NWC
and deputies, ex-officio members and the 37 state chairmen of the party.

“On June 27, 2012, we wrote a letter to the former National
Secretary of the party (Oyinlola) on the continuing exclusion of elected deputy
NWC members from the affairs of the party. We complained against the inability
of the NWC to comply with Article 37(2) to 44(2) which says that deputies shall
deputise.

“Oyinlola only replied us that by virtue of Article 13 of the
PDP constitution, “deputies to NWC members are to perform party functions only
when the need arises. We were shocked and we wrote the BOT Secretary on 16th
July 2012 to draw his attention to the anomalies in the management of the
affairs of the party.”