Staff of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Headquarters (Buhari House), especially from the South South geopolitical zone, have decried the lopsidedness of Directors’ placement in the Secretariat, asking former National Chairmen, Chief John Oyegun and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; Deputy Senate President, Senator Victor Omo-Agege and other leaders from the zone to intervene.

According to them, of the 8 Directors heading different Directorates, none is from South South.

Also of a concern to the staff is that nobody from South South is occupying the position of a Deputy Director at the APC Headquarters

The Directorates in the party Secretariat include those of Administration, Finance, Welfare, Publicity, Legal, Data and ICT, Research and Organization.

Of the 8 Directorates, North West occupies 2, South West, 2, North Central, 2, North East, 1 and South East, 1.

They gave the states of the Directors as follows: Organization (Nasarawa State), Data and ICT (Nasarawa State), Administration (Osun), Welfare (Ogun), Publicity (Kano), Finance (Borno) and Research (Enugu).

According to them, the National Legal Adviser was yet to bring the Director of Legal from Katsina State.

Also of concern to the staff is that the zones with the Directors have the Deputy Directors and Assistant Directors. “For instance, the North Central has the Director Organizing and Deputy Director Organizing,” a staff said.

Further alleging infractions against the present national leadership of the party, the staff accused the national chairman of having up to 20 aides graded on exorbitant salaries.

They alleged that non of the chairman’s aide earn less than N400, 000 (Four Hundred Thousand Naira) every month.

However, when the chairman was confronted with the sack of the former Directors and the employment of the new ones, he said it was to reorganize the party.

“Every change will have victims and we can say that we did not do anything with bias. Some people will feel offended but all we have done is in the best interest of the party. When we came in, we met N7.5billion on legal fees alone, no control or due process.

“There were more than 200 staff on the payroll and during the audit, we had to query where these number of people work. They went to the media that we can’t pay salary of staff just to blackmail us,” he said

Reacting to victims and publication made in one of the National dailies, the former Director of Research, Planning, Strategy and Intelligence Matters, Mr. Barth Ifeanyi Ugwoke, said his name should not be associated with any corruption or embezzlement in the party.

In responding to the publication, he said: “I was the pioneer Director of Research, Planning, Strategy and Intelligence Matters, All Progressives Congress (APC) at the National Headquarters during H.E Mai Mala Buni Caretaker/extraordinary Convention Planning Committee administration from August 2020 to April 2022

“The office of Research and Strategy has no business whatsoever in managing the finance of the party or accused of recklessness Seplet alone misappropriating anything. The department of research was not aware of any committee set up for any inquiries, invited for questioning or corrupt allegation.

“However, the pioneer Director, who is a lawyer and a party loyalist, has warned that his name should not be associated with any form of corrupt allegation or anything that would tarnish his image. In concluding his statement, he said that he is averse to anything that would threaten his true character that he has built for years before politics.”

On his part, the National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Felix Morka, reacting to the staff complaints said, “This is an internal party administrative process that is still ongoing. It is premature to make any determination as your question suggests.

When the process is concluded, I believe that there will be satisfactory outcomes.” (NEW TELEGRAPH)

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