The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, has unearthed a can of worms plaguing the party’s secretariat, saying he inherited baggage of corruption, salary arrears and ghost workers.

Adamu made the revelation during a media parley with journalists at the party headquarters in Abuja on Thursday.

The clarification is coming on the heels of report that the former Nasarawa State governor had replaced some suspended departmental directors of the secretariat with his relatives and cronies.

The six affected directors namely Elder Anietie Offong (Welfare); Bartholomew Ugwoke (Research); Abubakar Suleiman (Finance); Dr Suleiman Abubakar (Administration); Salisu Dambatta (Publicity) and Dare Oketade, Legal Head, were allegedly accused of mismanaging N7.7bn.

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Adamu had on April 22 ordered the directors to proceed on a “compulsory annual leave.”

Although the former Nasarawa governor promised to run a staff audit, the result of the exercise which showed an over-bloated workforce was not implemented.

Instead, the party chairman consequently set up an investigative panel headed by an ex-Governor of Jigawa State, Ali Kudu, to study the handing-over notes of the defunct Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee.

It was the fallout of the committee’s recommendations that compelled Adamu to place the departmental directors and head of legal services on an indefinite suspension.

In the last one week, the media has been awash with report of new helmsmen replacing four of the six axed directors.

Defending his action in a media parley with newsmen on Thursday, Adamu disclosed that the move was necessitated by the need to sanitise the system.

This was as he denied allegation that the new replacement were his cronies.

He said, “That the report is false. The fact of the matter is, go through the secretariat, there is not one person since we came in here that is my blood relation. Not one, whether primary or part of my extended family.

“It is a fallacy (that I have my people working here). In fact, when we came here, it was to reorganise and reconstitute the party. You don’t see the party in a state of mess and look the other way just because you want to be decent and not offend anybody.”

While claiming that he met a cesspool of corruption, tardy staff and a register containing over 200 names including ghost workers, the APC chairman swore that it was not in his DNA to overlook such anomalies.

He also swore that his action was done out of motivation to right the wrongs and not as prejudice as being speculated in the media.

“We came and found the party where people are fixing all manners of things. We had a bill of N7.5bn to settle on legal matters alone. We came to find that here everybody was like me, on his own. No control, no system and no due process. Everybody doing what he wanted to do. It is just because you don’t want to be accused of anything that you will allow those kinds of people.

“My DNA has a terrible allergy to that. I am sure most, if not all, of my members in the NWC share in this. So we found the necessity to reorganise the centre and only God knows the extent of appreciation we probably have won. Of course, every situation of change has a victim of its own and ours is not an exception. And we didn’t do anything with bias or prejudice. The main thing is the interest of the party.

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“I know we will be abused and falsely accused but we are humans. I am not saying we don’t make mistakes. But the fact of the matter is that there is nothing we have done deliberately just to promote our own interests. We don’t do it. There is a lot of falsehood going on.

Ghost workers in APC headquarters
“Recently, we tried to introduce table payment. If you are a member of this chapel, you know we don’t have 200 people working for us here. But if you go through the payroll, we are over 200 people. Who are they? How did they come up on their bill? What are they doing for us? Where are their letters of appointment? What condition of service do they have?

“You don’t, because you are afraid of negative media reviews, ignore this. People went to the market square saying we are arranging salaries but can’t pay. That is very far from the truth. We met and paid some arrears when we came in. I don’t have any qualms about this. We did everything in good faith,” he said.

The PUNCH also reached out to the affected directors to get their reactions.

An unhappy Salisu Dambatta, who was the former Director of Publicity in the APC, told The PUNCH that he doesn’t want to join issues with the party.

According to him, it will not be good for the image of the party, especially at a time when the Presidential Candidate of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has commenced his campaign.

Former Legal Head of the APC, Dare Oketade, also told our reporter that the ex-director of administration was in a better position to relate their plight.

He also believed their predicament was more of a witch-hunt than the flimsy allegation of corruption Adamu was trying to rope them with.

When contacted, the emotional admin director, Abubakar Suleiman, told The PUNCH that the whole drama looked like it was pre-arranged.

Suleiman accused the Adamu-led NWC of failing to narrate their “sin” before plunging them into “compulsory annual leave,” an act that culminated in appointment of their replacements.

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“Adamu lied. My brother, nothing went wrong. The secretariat was in good hands. What necessitated his decision was not known to us or anybody. It was an agenda. Nobody was indicted. I am sure you must have heard from others too. Nothing went wrong anywhere.

“As directors, we don’t approve anything. Our job was to implement,” he bemoaned.

Asked where the allegation of N7.7bn was coming from, he dismissed the idea, saying it was non-existent.

He noted, “Nothing like that. Nobody is aware of the N7.7bn you said he talked about. No money was missing. There were also no ghost workers anywhere. Every staff you see at the secretariat there was duly engaged with letters of employment. At the time we left, the staff strength was about 211 workers.

“All these talks of corruption and others must have been an after-thought, I am sure. All the suspension letter told us was that it was based on the recommendation of the committee set up.”

A copy of the letter written to them by the party’s national secretary and made available to our correspondent indicated that they were removed as a result of the recommendations contained in the report of the Transition Committee Adamu appointed.

The director of administration lamented that at the bottom of the letter, “each of us was wished well in his future endeavours.”

Despite writing President Muhammadu Buhari and copying Tinubu, members of the Progressive Governors’ Forum, National Executive Committee and party chieftains, no action was taken, according to the director.

A pensive Suleiman, however, concluded that they might consider litigation if all entreaties to reinstate them fail.

This was as he reiterated that Adamu and the NWC lacked the power to recruit or disengage staff without the approval of the National Executive Committee of the Party.

He said, “The power given to them by NEC then was only to organise primaries and national convention. They have acted beyond their remit by sending us on compulsory annual leave which is strange to the APC staff condition of service and breached the APC constitution by saying that they have removed us.

“An Establishment Committee is the only body that can make recommendation to engage or remove staff of the APC secretariat. And even then, it can only become effective when or if the NEC approves. There must be genuine reasons for either recruitment or disengagement.

“Our dismissal has not followed any due process. It is unfair. You just don’t go about tarnishing people’s image. You were about the only journalist that called to verify the truth.

“I have put 22 years of service into this party through the whole transition and merger process from the AD. But what Adamu just did was to bring in his cronies and people to run things at the secretariat.

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“If he tells you his people are not working at the secretariat, he lied. Quote me anywhere. He has his people in positions of leadership including those he brought in as aides and personal assistants. We need to call a spade a spade.”
PUNCH