PDP Finances Not EFCC’s Business ― BoT

The Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Monday, declared that the party is not accountable to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and therefore, the anti-graft agency has no business with its finances.

The board made the declaration after its meeting at the national headquarters of the party in Abuja that was called to deliberate on the petition by an expelled member of the party in Edo State, Kassim Afegbua, levelling fraud claims against the National Chairman of the party, Prince Uche Secondus.

Speaking with journalists after the meeting, the Chairman of the PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, who gave this position, affirmed that as a political party, the regulatory body of the PDP is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to whom the party had submitted its audited accounts.

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He said it is left for the electoral body to provide objections where it finds the party wanting in its finances.

Senator Jibrin said the petitioner did not follow due process in raising allegations against the party boss, saying; “He ought to have used the opportunity of the PDP constitution and various organs to ventilate his petition to the various organs of the party.

“In the PDP, aggrieved members ventilate his or her grievances through well-known party organs and not externalising them. This is more so when the issues involved have a regulatory body like INEC.

“INEC is the regulatory organ of all political parties and the PDP is inclusive. The PDP account has been audited by a reputable chartered firm and the report is with INEC and the body has not raised any objection on the account of the party.

“It is both constitutionally wrong for EFCC to intervene in issues that it is purely of political parties and Kasim Afegbua not following the due processes in this instant case,” he said.

On the defection of Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River to the APC, the PDP BoT chairman noted that it is shocking because he had benefited immensely from the PDP.

Jibrin revealed plans by the PDP to stage a mega rally in Calabar to demonstrate that the people remain firmly in the political party that had governed the state since the advent of the present democratic dispensation.