Posted by By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt on
Things are certainly not well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Bayelsa state, as it is indebted to the landlord of the party's secretariat in Yenagoa, to the tune of N45 million.
Things are certainly not well with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Bayelsa state, as it is indebted to the landlord of the party's secretariat in Yenagoa, to the tune of N45 million.
Sources close to the landlord, Mr.Adolphus Egba, said that the owner had written to the national secretariat of the party and president Musa Yar'Adua, asking them to prevail on the state leadership of the party to pay him the money owed him.
The N45 million, according to Egba, was an accumulation of arrears of 18 months' rent and damages to the building caused by dynamite blasts following the violence that rocked the state chapter in 2006.
According to our sources in Government House, Yenagoa, in his letter addressed to Bayelsa state governor, Chief Timipre Sylva; the national chairman, Vincent Ogbulafor, and president Yar'Adua, the landlord accused the Chief Rufus Abadi-led state executive of the PDP of deliberate attempt to renege on an earlier agreement on the settlement of the N45million.
He said though the party under the leadership of its immediate past chairman, Chief Fred Agbedi, and the incumbent chairman, Abadi, carried out an independent evaluation of the damages on the building and agreed to pay N39million as against the N93million claimed by his lawyers, the party had blocked all avenues of communication on the matter.
Egba also stated that the Abadi-led executive had abandoned his building and hired someone else's building to be occupied by the party without settling the debt owed him.
The landlord, who is now physically challenged, spoke from his wheelchair to journalists, in Yenagoa, that he would challenge the party's action in court, pointing out that it was a deviation from the principle of rule of law and equity being advocated by the president.
According to the depressed landlord, 'When the damages were quantified by my surveyor, I was informed that the building may collapse soon due to the damages done to it.
'I wrote to the party and they secured the services of another surveyor and agreed to pay N39m, but up till this moment they have failed to redeem the pledge. I am a cripple confined to a wheelchair.' 'I regret renting the building to the party as it is the only means of livelihood for me and my family. They want to vacate the building in a dirty and damaged state. The governor and the leadership of the party should intervene', Egba lamented.
Contacted on the development, the state secretary of the party, Mr. James Angaye, confirmed the indebtedness, adding that the party executive had pleaded with him for time to secure funds to settle all debts owed him. 'Although nobody handed any document to the party on the claims for damages, the party has pleaded with him for time to settle outstanding rents', Angaye explained.
It is, however, very doubtful if governor Sylva can come to the aid of the landlord of the PDP secratariat as his administration has been embroiled in controversy over a N60 billion loan that the opposition is accusing his government of obtaining illegally and allegedly mismanaged.
However, Chief Asara O. Asara, the Commissioner for Information, has defended the state government and absolved it of all allegations of mismanagement of the loan. He said the loan was used for developmental projects for the people of Bayelsa.