…Says N25m being offered to National Officers
By Mike Odiakose
A member of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Chinemerem Madu on Wednesday alleged that there is a plot by one of the Party’s National Vice Chairmen to derail the campaign of the presidential candidate of the part, Atiku Abubakar.
Chief Madu, who addressed journalists at the venue of the flag-off of the PDP presidential campaign in Abuja, said the National Vice chairman is from one of the zones in the South but declined to mention his name.
He declared that certain events will soon unfold that will unmask the identity of the PDP chieftain that is being sponsored to destabilise the party.
According to Chief Madu, who is NEC member from Imo State, the main objective of the National Vice Chairman is “to scuttle the deserving victory of our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar at the 2023 general elections.
“This National Vice Chairman and his cohorts who confessed to have been heavily bankrolled are approaching and offering members of NEC sums ranging from N25 million to N28 million each to address a damaging press conference with fabrications aimed at derailing the Presidential Campaign.
“The said National Vice Chairman had approached me personally as a member of NEC to inform me of plots to orchestrate a heavily funded Press Conference to be addressed by select NEC members seemingly calling for the resignation of the National Chairman, Sen. Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, but actually targeted at frustrating the Atiku Abubakar Presidential bid.
“He pointedly confessed to me that the demands and agitation of his group has not been against the Party Chairman, as the public have been made to believe, but against Atiku Abubakar.
“He also vowed that nothing will assuage the group which is now bent at derailing the PDP Presidential Campaign.
“Central to this plot is the timing of the damaging press conference, which has been scheduled to hold soon after the inauguration of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council and official commencement of campaigns with a view to unsettle the PDP Presidential Campaign and scuttle Atiku Abubakar’s Presidential bid.
“Part of the scheme is to use the press conference to throw up heavily concocted script which will contain unprintable damaging claims, assertions and allusions that will trigger confusion within the Party and sidetrack the Presidential Campaign
“The said National Vice Chairman informed me of how huge sums have been paid to certain media houses and social media influencers to isolate and escalate the damaging content of the press content and throw up negative narratives to frustrate the campaign.
“As a loyal and very dedicated Party man, I am obliged to alert PDP leaders, members, supporters and the general public and expose this furtive scheme against Atiku Abubakar, which is completely against the national interest.
“PDP members and the general public should be at alert and note the surreptitious real intentions of any press conference by any group of members of NEC, purported to be against the National Chairman.
“Any NEC member involved in such a press conference had obviously fallen to the juicy financial offer by the said National Vice Chairman and his paymasters.
“For the avoidance of doubt, it is imperative to state that the overwhelming support being enjoyed by Atiku Abubakar across board is not and cannot be bought with money as Nigerians see in him the embodiment of the solution our nation needs at this point.”
