Contractor handling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national secretariat project located in the central area of Abuja has stopped working on the building under construction despite the billions of naira raised at a fundraising party organized before the 2015 general elections.
Daily Trust contacted the past and current party officials on the reason why the project was stopped. None of them was ready to open up on the current situation of the building as they were busy engaging in buck passing.
The PDP national publicity secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, confirmed to Daily Trust in a telephone interview that work had stopped on the project months ago. But Metuh declined to explain why the contractor stopped work and other issues raised by our correspondent regarding the project.
“I am aware that the contractor stopped work for some months now. But I am just the national publicity secretary of the party. So, honestly, I don’t have the details," he said.
But the PDP national vice chairman for South-South, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, said in a telephone interview that the party’s former national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu was in the best position to explain what happened to the project.
“I don’t know. We gave the money to Mu’azu for the secretariat. So, call him and ask him what he has done with the money. He is in the country. He is in the better position to answer that question, so, call him and ask him about the secretariat," he said.
However, Mu’azu’s Press Secretary when he was the PDP national chairman, Tony Amadi, in a text message said the present PDP National Working Committee (NWC) led by Prince Uche Secondus was in a better position to explain what happened to the project.
Amadi said: “you know there was a recent release that the PDP building is suspended for lack of cash. This was an Olisa Metuh statement. So, it has nothing to do with Mu’azu leadership.”
The PDP acting national chairman, Prince Secondus, neither responded to a text message sent to him by our correspondent nor answered calls put to his mobile phone for two days.
The PDP awarded the contract few years ago for the sum of N11.5 billion and paid a mobilisation fee of N2 billion to BNL Limited, the contractor handling the project. The contract, which was signed at the party’s national secretariat, Wadata House has a delivery date of 126 weeks.
Following this, the party had in December 2014, at its fund raising dinner in Abuja, got N21 billion which party leaders said was not only for the 2015 general election campaigns but also for the completion of the project.
Chief Tunde Ayeni opened the donations with N1 billion on behalf of himself and his group of friends at the fund raising event. He also announced the donation of another N2 billion on behalf of a different group of friends he said came from across the country.
Professor Jerry Gana donated N5 billion on behalf of his friends, while the National Automotive Council donated N450 million. The PDP Governors’ Forum, represented by the former Bauchi State Governor, Isa Yuguda, announced a donation of N50 million by each of the 21 PDP state governors, making a total N1.05 billion. Yuguda was supported by the governors of Cross River, Bayelsa, and Gombe states while announcing the donation.
Bola Shagaya from Kwara State representing oil and gas industry donated N5 billion, while the construction sector donated N310 million. The chairman of Deep Offshore, Didi Ndimou, representing the Transport and Aviation sector donated N1 billion. The real estate sector represented by Oluchi Okoye donated N4 billion while the food and agricultural sector, represented by Chief Ominife Uzoegbu donated N500 million.
Also making donation at the event attended by former President Goodluck Jonathan, his vice, Alhaji Namadi Sambo, Chief Tony Anenih and the then PDP national chairman, Alhaji Adamu Mua’zu among others, was Cizaly Ltd which donated N250 million, while the representatives of the power sector led by Tunde Ayeni donated N500 million.
Other donors at the PDP fund raising dinner included the National Association of Stevedores’ Companies, N25 million; former governor of Ebonyi State Sam Egwu, N1 million; Halima Jubril, N5 million; and Ajuji Best Western Hotel, N1 million; among others.
The party realised over N21 billion at its fund-raising dinner from donors spanning business, elected government officials and private individuals. Although the president, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who was billed to be the chief launcher, was absent at the dinner held at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, the event received huge financial commitment from those present.
But a chieftain of the PDP in Osun State, Jackson Lekan Ojo, however, observed that the money for the project might have been carved from the federal and PDP controlled states accounts, calling on the President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to "confiscate" the building.
He said the N21 billion realised from the PDP fund raising event was enough to complete the project, but that there was disagreement within the ranks and files of the party’s national executive, leading to the stoppage of the project. Ojo claimed that the project, which was run by the former Jonathan-led federal government, was stopped because the party lost the election at the centre.
“In fact, I expect the federal government to confiscate that property because that property has been built to that level with tax payers’ money. As at today, that building should be confiscated by the federal government," he said.
Addressing newsmen in January, 2015, at the uncompleted secretariat, Chairman, Fund Raising Committee of the party, Professor Jerry Gana, said it would be tantamount to going contrary to the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC’s ) law, which stipulates a specific amount of fund for presidential campaigns, for PDP to spend N21 billion on the presidential election, adding “there is a specific focus on the incomplete PDP permanent headquarters.”
