Senator Abdullahi Adamu, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has come under fire from some party members for allegedly using “secret accounts” without the National Working Committee’s approval (NWC).
The members who were recently sacked by the national chairman also accused Adamu of disregarding the cashless policy and withdrawing the sum of N3bn from the “secret accounts.”
Adamu had, on April 22, ordered all departmental directors at the party’s headquarters in Abuja to proceed on indefinite suspension over allegations of corruption.
Addressing a press conference last week, Adamu, a former governor of Nasarawa State, accused the directors of corruption, saying his administration inherited a debt of N7.5bn from the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.
But the statement signed by the five “sacked” directors and the head of legal, argued that the transition committee didn’t recommend their sack, hence they are still legitimate staff of the party and must be paid their entitlements.
They said Adamu’s claim of inheriting N7.5bn debt from the Buni committee was false, alleging that he (Adamu) rather opened secret accounts without the approval of the NWC where he made a withdrawal of N3bn against the cashless policy.
Part of the statement reads: “Allegation of corruption at the secretariat. This allegation is groundless and unproven. The withdrawal of N3,000,000,000 (three billion naira) in cash from some secret accounts that were reportedly opened without a resolution of the current NWC, or approval by the National Executive Committee (NEC), did not happen when the directors and head of legal were in office.
“An explanation of this anomaly and breach of the cashless policy by the national chairman is desirable lest unwholesome allegations fly around.
“We are compelled to respond to some of his claims, which are totally unfounded, to keep the records in the public domain accurate, thus making same a reliable source of reference in the future.
“We can simply say that there were no ghost workers in the APC secretariat during the tenure of the Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.
“To substantiate the claim of the existence of ghost workers, their names and total number should be published by the chairman (Adamu).
“There is no substance in the claim that there were arrears of staff salaries when the current leadership of the party assumed office.”
This is because staff salaries were paid up to the end of March 2022 to ensure that the new leadership of the party comes in on a clean slate regarding staff salaries.
“The staff can testify to this fact. It is therefore incorrect to say that the Abdullahi Adamu team inherited any salary arrears.
