Dan Orbih, the Peoples Democratic Party‘s (PDP) national vice chairman for the south, has denied having any involvement in the NWC’s decision to award members a housing allowance.
Recall that Senator Iyorchia Ayu, the PDP National Chairman, stated that the NWC decided to provide each member with a housing allowance as a group.
The allowance is statutory and lawful, according to Simon Imobo-Tswam, the PDP Chairman’s media aide, who also said that the money deposited into the PDP NWC members’ accounts wasn’t intended as an inducement.
Orbih, one of the NWC members who returned the N122.4 million, refuted the party’s assertion that the funds were intended for their housing allowance in an interview with The Punch.
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The PDP leader claimed he had atoned for his sins and had no need to fabricate information regarding how the money came to be there.
He said, “I don’t want to talk about Ayu. I speak for myself. I have done what I feel is needful. I have given reasons for doing what I have done. Let every man carry the full weight of his problem. Ayu should speak for himself. He is an adult. It was very clear in my letter.
“If it is in a civilised society, people should be praising and commending us for what we have done. Instead, they will be asking them questions to make them justify what they did. It is wrong.
“They, first of all, said it was a loan. I asked where is my loan application. And if it is a loan, where is the repayment plan by me, signed between me and the party? And I asked the third question, when has PDP turned into a bank that gives loans to people?
“That was how they ran away from there and started saying it is accommodation allowance. Is it the house you want them to pay for (rent not buy) made of gold or is it diamond built? 90 per cent of us, including Ayu, have a house here in Abuja. So, I don’t know. What is the take-home of Nigeria’s President, including accommodation allowance? What is bad is bad.
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“I am not taking any steps. We have done what our conscience says is the right thing to do. Every person has a conscience, a name to protect. If others do not feel there is nothing wrong with it, that is their business. I didn’t say other people should do it or not do it. They all have their consciences.”
Orbih further refuted Ayu’s assertion that the NWC unanimously resolved to provide each member with a housing stipend, noting that the majority of the members already own homes in Abuja.
However, he pressed the embattled PDP chairman to provide proof that the NWC members had decided to deposit the specified sum into their accounts.
He said: “I even saw in a paper on Sunday that such thing was brought before the NWC, the decision was taken by every person, the decision was taken in a meeting. I have challenged them that they should produce the minutes of the meeting and the date the meeting took place and who voted for that and who did not.
“I can tell you for sure that there was no meeting that the issue came to the NWC. I have never seen a country like this. Some said the money was paid on the 14th and why did it take me over 5-6 days? With the type of insecurity in this country, how many people put alerts on their phones?
“I normally reconcile my account at the end of every month. The story by a paper on September 26 was what triggered off this whole crisis. If not, I would have seen it at the end of the month.”
