The National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr Iyorchia Ayu has debunked collecting N1 billion gratification from an unnamed PDP presidential aspirant.
He spoke at the party’s Abuja national secretariat shortly after he attended a meeting of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT), according to The Nation.
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has accused Ayu of taking the said N1 billion from an unnamed aspirant shortly before the PDP presidential primaries.
The Governor further accused the PDP chairman of collecting N100 million twice for the renovation of a new office for Peoples Democratic Institute (PDI), a research outfit of the PDP on Friday.
According to the Governor, Ayu collected the first N100m from an unnamed PDP Governor and still collected another N100 million from the PDP National Working Committee (NWC) for the same purpose.
But responding to the Rivers Governor’s accusations for the first time, Ayu said the N1 billion was a proposed bank loan proposal that the party wanted to take from a friendly commercial bank.
He however said the party dropped the idea after due consultations.
On the N100 million, Ayu admitted that a PDP Governor actually made the donation to the party for the purpose of renovating the NDI office accommodation.
According to him, the donation was used for the purpose for which it was given and the party did not even exhaust the entire fund on the renovation exercise.
Also, Daily Post reports that Ayu warned aggrieved persons to leave his family out of the controversy.
While dismissing Wike’s allegations, Ayu promised that the statement of the party account will be made available to party members soon.
He said as the father of the party he decided to be quiet for peace to reign.
Ayu also appealed to all aggrieved members of the party to leave his family out saying. “I felt I should encourage reconciliation. But where it touches on my integrity, which even my own family members are brought into play.
“I appeal to aggrieved people to desist from trying to malign my character or bringing my family into party affairs.
” I never collected 1 billion from anybody. And the 100 million that was donated by one of the governors was judiciously used for the purpose that it was given”.
