According to Voice of America, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has distanced itself from some of its members who are being tried for corruption. The PDP said further that it cannot take responsibility for the charges against the accused persons, which include spokesman, Olisa Metuh and former Board of Trustees Chairman, Tony Anenih. The comments were made by the PDP’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Abdullahi Jalo.
“Let us call a spade a spade. There is money allocated to purchase arms to fight Boko Haram, which is an act of the National Assembly, and then instead of the money to be used properly, there is an allegation by EFCC that out of this money Olisa Metuh has collected 400 million naira, our former PDP Board of Trustees Chairman, Tony Anenih has collected 252 million naira. So there is a lot of money collected indiscriminately without the party knowing,” Jalo said.
“PDP has no hand as a party; it has not sent Olisa or any other person to go and collect money on its behalf because PDP is a political party. It doesn’t do contracts. If any money is to be given to PDP, it must go into the account of the PDP,” Jalo added.
Metuh and Anenih are among members of the party who have been accused of benefitting from the $2.1 billion arms deal fraud which was supervised by former National Security Adviser (NSA), Sambo Dasuki. The PDP has said that it will suspend any of its members who is convicted of corrupt practices.