PDP Tackles Afegbua Over Petition To EFCC, ICPC Against Party |The Source

By Gideon Njoku

The main opposition Party, the  People’s Democratic Party, PDP, is battling to extricate itself from a corruption allegation by Mr Kassim Afegbua, against its Leadership.

Afegbua had, allegedly, boasted that he had petitioned  both the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and the ICPC, asking the anti-graft agencies to investigate the Party over the sum of N10 billion, allegedly, realised in 2019 from sale of forms during the General Elections.

Afegbua was a strong member of the party, having defected from the APC, where he rose to become the Commissioner for Information, under the APC Government of Adams Oshiomhole in Edo.

During the 2019 General Elections, he was one of the Spokespersons of PDP’s Presidential Campaign Team.

But he and the Party fell apart during the Edo State Governoship Election in 2020. Afegbua was publicly against the Party when it chose and endorsed Governor Godwin Obaseki as its candidate.

Obaseki had just defected to  the PDP, having been inexplicably denied the return ticket by the Oshiomhole-led APC National leadership.

Afegbua campaigned vigorously against Obaseki.

Since then, his relationship with the PDP had soured and they have parted ways.

In a statement, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan dismissed Afegbua’s allegation as  spurious and Irresponsible.  It said that the party realised the sum of N4.6 billion  only, and followed every due process in its disbursement.

The statement chided Afegbua, and wondered why he had to resort to fictitious allegations.

The statement reads:

“The attention of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been drawn to a spurious and irresponsible allegation by one Kassim Afegbua, upon which he claimed to have petitioned the EFCC and ICPC, asking that the leadership of the party account for an alleged sum of N10 billion.

“According to this Afegbua, the said sum was allegedly realized from the sale of “forms in 2019”.

“While the PDP, our leaders and members are aware that there is no truth in the allegation, however for the benefit of the public and our teeming supporters, the PDP states as follows:

“The PDP did not raise Afegbua’s fictitious sum of N10 billion as alleged by him. For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP generated the sum of N4.6 billion and raised a budget for its expenditure, in line with all known financial regulations of our party.

“This budget passed through the organs of our party and received the approvals from the NWC, the Governors’ Forum, the Board of Trustees as well as other organs of the party.

“As a law-abiding political party that respects the doctrine of rule of law and transparency, the budget was presented to the National Executive Committee (NEC) where it also received a final approval.

“It is imperative to state that all the sums received and budgeted for passed through the due process of approval by the necessary organs of the party.

“Moreover, the PDP has no account under the name or guise of Afegbua’s ghostly Morufu Nigeria Limited.

“Having said that, as a political party, under whose administration the EFCC and the ICPC were formulated and established, our party strictly adheres to best practices of transparency, accountability and probity in all issues including our financial administration.

“In addition, our party has since submitted the audited account of its financial expenditures to the INEC for 2019, in line with statutory requirements of the law.

“The PDP will not in any way be distracted by an inconsequential blackmailer hired to mudsling our party and its leadership, in order to divert attention from the salient issues of insecurity and drooping economy trailing the failures of the APC administration to provide good governance.

“For the benefit of unsuspecting members of the public, the activities of a certain Afegbua have always been suspect and we urge Nigerians to be wary of such characters and their backers.”

It is not yet known if any of the anti-graft agencies – EFCC and ICPC – has started any investigation of the PDP Leadership based on Afegbua’s petition.