The leadership crisis of the main
opposition party in Nigeria – People’s Democratic Party seems to have affected its finances with the workers at the receiving
end.
Members of staff of the Peoples Democratic Party at its national headquarters in Abuja are currently groaning under heavy debt following drastic cut in their monthly salaries, investigation by Sunday PUNCH has revealed.
Most of the workers have chosen to remain at home while a few of them show up briefly at the party’s temporary headquarters being used by a faction of the
party led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi.
The factional headquarters, which is located at Wuse Zone 2, is being used by the sacked national caretaker committee of the party.
But following the judgement of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, which annulled the decisions taken at the national
convention on May 21, 2016, where the caretaker committee was given birth, the temporary office had been named “PDP
Reps Caucus office.”
It was gathered that the decision to rename the temporary office was to avoid contempt of court, which had given its back to the
national leadership of the party under Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.
Some of the workers, who on Monday gathered at the temporary secretariat to renew their loyalty to the Makarfi faction,
however told a correspondent that things were becoming difficult for them.
They said they were initially being paid 30 per cent of their salaries until October last
year, when the party leadership again reduced it to 25 per cent.
The workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were afraid of victimisation, said most of them were now
having problems with their finances.
“We are finding it difficult to pay school fees, pay rent, feed our family members and also
meet up with other family needs. Those are some of the problems we are facing.”
The National Director of Administration of the party, Mr. Gurama Bawa, said the crisis in
the party had taken its toll on the members of staff.
He said, “One of the major casualties of this power struggle has been the staff of the PDP
national secretariat, many of whom have spent 17 years of their working life striving
to establish and grow the bureaucracy of the party.”
