There was confusion at Wadata House, the
National Headquarters of the Peoples Democratic Party on Thursday in
Abuja, as angry
police officers, led by one Sergeant Reuben Onu and a
staff of the party, physically assaulted workers of Twinkles World
Limited who were protesting against unpaid debts estimated at N360m.
The company handled the contract for the
decoration of the PDP presidential campaigns in all states of the
federation in the last general elections.
During the protest, the Managing
Director of the company, Mr. Tunde Agarawu, and Project Coordinator, Mr.
Awonaiya Olayemi, were physically assaulted.
While the managing director was slapped
by Onu and an unidentified employee of the PDP, Olayemi was pelted with
sands on his head by same officers.
The police team later reinforced, coming with many other police officers to scare away the protesting workers numbering over 30.
But a police officer, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, said the MD was assaulted because he did not
heed the advice to channel their grievances to Legacy House, the office
of the PDP Presidential Campaign Organization.
The firm reiterated its decision to drag President Goodluck Jonathan and the party to court over the unpaid debts.
Already, their lawyer had issued a seven-day ultimatum to PDPPCO to offset the debt or face an action in court.
The protesters carried placards with
inscriptions like, “PDPPCO is owing us for the service we provided
them”, “Prof. Jerry Gana, pay us our money now!”, “Dr. Ahmadu Alli, DG
of PDPPCO, pay our money now”, “Mr. President, Prof. Jerry Gana is yet
to pay Twinkle World Limited,” and “Nigerians: PDP is owing Twinkle
World.”
Agarawu said since Jonathan lost the
presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari, he and the PDP hierarchy had
failed to pay most debts incurred for the campaigns.
He alleged that a former Minister of
Information, Prof. Jerry Gana, and other members of the PDPPCO
deliberately withheld their money, even though a directive has been
given by the immediate-past chairman of the party, Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu,
that the debts should be cleared.
In an interview with journalists at the
PDP secretariat, Agarawu said there was no going back in the pursuit of
the management to get the money.
He said, “It is a battle of no retreat, no surrender.”
According to him, the complaints have reached President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said the President was shocked that
the money has not been paid, despite the overwhelming evidence that it
has been released to the PDPPCO.
“President Goodluck Jonathan is not
happy. We have been told that the man is embarrassed because he also
gave money to the PDPPCO and yet he is hearing these stories about debts
running into billions of naira. The President told somebody close to us
that he is not owing us because he was just a presidential candidate of
the PDP and that if there is anybody owing us, it is the PDPPCO”,
Agarawu said.
While several efforts made to get Gana
for response were not successful, calls and text messages to his
Personal Assistant, Mr. James Agbo, over the same matter were not
replied.
The PUNCH recalled that Agarawu
said no mobilisation fund was given to them before the commencement of
the project, adding that banks and corporate bodies where they sourced
loans to execute the project were already demanding for the payment of
their funds.
He had said, “We are constrained to make
this urgent request to the leadership of the PDP Presidential Campaign
Organization and Prof. Jerry Gana with a view to pleading for prompt
intervention for the payment of the nationwide venue beautification and
publicity with inflatable for the Presidential campaign.
“We have resorted to taking this last
step after exhausting every strenuous potential avenue of getting the
matter resolved to no avail. At the moment, we believe strongly that
only your personal, compassionate, humane, fair and just nature could
help save this embarrassing situation that is capable of tarnishing and
eroding further the good name and image of all concerned.
“The fact of the case was that on
January 7, 2015, Twinkle World Limited was contracted to execute a
nationwide presidential campaign venue beautification project in all of
the 36 states of the federation. We are also expected to provide the
awareness and publicity venue support services throughout the PDP
nationwide presidential campaign from January 8 to February 6, 2015.”
Source:Punch Newspaper.
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