By Musa Baba Adamu
Kogi State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been hit with a crisis over demand for a financial audit report from 2016 till date by some stakeholders in the State.
The request followed beliefs in some quarters that there was a high level of financial malfeasance and commercialisation of party activities by ‘cliques’ who have been managing the affairs of the party for the past five years.
PDP is an opposition party in Kogi State and some party leaders in the State who have not been in touch with the direction of things in the party have, however, written to the National leadership of the party, seeking the constitution of a high-powered investigative panel to review and forensically audit the Party’s financial dealings, spanning between 2016 to 2021.
In the forefront of the petition to the National leadership was Senator Dino Melaye, who formerly represented Kogi West Senatorial District.
Melaye in a petition insisted that the Kogi State Chapter of the PDP be probed.
A copy of the petition which Melaye personally made available to journalists, read in part, “It is an open secret that the Kogi State executives of the party have sidelined so many critical stakeholders and has been hijacked by few people led by Alfred Bello, who now runs the Party as a private affair operating the party finances recklessly and nonchalantly.”
The ex-lawmaker in the petition demanded the resignation of the State Chairman of PDP, saying there were multiple unresolved crises occasioned by his maladministration and high handedness.
The petitioner urged the party national leadership to demand the result of the Ward and Polling unit of the Chairman in the last governorship election in Kogi State.
The petitioner reminded the PDP National leadership that Kogi State party leadership deliberately abandoned his role in Kogi Central Senatorial District where he hails from, thereby allowing governor Yahaya Bello to cook results at will, making the APC results from the Central Senatorial district more than the entire Kogi State put together.
He said the petition became necessary as PDP intends to wrestle power from the APC in the 2023 general election, adding that further evidence would be tendered if he was called upon to defend the petition.
