APC yet to refund aspirants months after election

…As National Secretariat staff members lament over delayed salary payment

…Adamu to downsize Secretariat’s workforce

Joel Oladele-Abuja and Uthman Salami

It’s been over 6 months since Senator Abdulahi Adamu emerged as the Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), yet, the directive given by President Muhammadu Buhari that the expression of interest and nomination fees paid by other aspirants who stepped down for him(Adamu) should be refunded is yet to be obeyed.

A source close to the party who spoke on condition of anonymity said he’s not sure if the money has been refunded, however, added that the delay could be because most of the aspirants are not really mounting pressure on the party for a refund.

Many believe this cannot be far from the fact that most of them want to remain in the good books of the party.

“The last information I got about it a few weeks ago is that the money is yet to be refunded and I’m not sure many of the aspirants are even going out of their ways to demand it.

“Promises were actually made but as I’m speaking with you, nothing has been done about it. If there were agitations, perhaps they would have been paid. That’s my impression,” the source disclosed.

Meanwhile, some members of staff working at the Party’s Secretariat have begun to raise dust over the delayed payment of salary, which many have described as a worrying development and new to the party.

When asked for clarification over the payment of staff salary, the source said the delay in the payment of salary of the members of staff of APC National Secretariat is affecting all staff members, including the Chairman himself.

This condition is considered a strange novel as staff used to get paid 25th of every month under Governor Buni led caretaker committee, the source disclosed.

“I even heard Adamu has not been paying workers salaries regularly as it used to be, mostly, even the daily running cost of the party secretariat is not being released.

“I think that’s just his own style, he can’t claim there is no money on ground for a smooth running of the party as the party recently made billions of Naira  from the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms from aspirants contesting various elective positions,” the source added.

One of the staff members (name withheld) also said “The last salary I received was that of July, we have not been paid for August, this is September 11, we don’t know what’s happening.”

It was also gathered that the APC National Publicity Secretary, Barrister Felix Morka was upset at a point about money spent on publicity as most of the adverts are yet to be paid for.

Another source from the party secretariat said Senator Adamu cannot be blamed for what is going on in the party as he’s doing that to correct many of the wrongs of the immediate past administration of the party.

According to him, there are many ghost workers who only receive salary but don’t report at the office. These, he said Adamu is trying to track and very soon, justice will be served.

“What’s really going on is that staff auditing is ongoing, he’s not doing it deliberately to make life difficult for the staff.

“There are some ghost workers whose appointment might be terminated after the exercise. Some of us are aware of this.

“When Buni was the caretaker Chairman, he over-staffed the place, ordinarily he had no right as a Caretaker Chairman to employ anyone.

“Under him, the workforce of about 90 plus people increased to close to 200 people.

“Adamu is disturbed about that as he has not been seeing them physically but they keep receiving alerts for salary.

“He was able to track them through the attendance list, those who have not been coming since April have been noted and might face retrenchment any moment from now.”

On the running cost, the source said, “Senator Adamu is the approving authority and he can do anything he considers right for the party.”

By the 26th of September, it will be the 6th month since Senator Adamu, the anointed candidate of President Muhammadu Buhari emerged on consensus as the party’s National Chairman at the March 26 national convention after other Chairmanship aspirants stepped down.

Another source who pleaded anonymity said he’s aware the party is working seriously on refunding chairmanship aspirants as directed by President Muhammadu Buhari but he was not sure how far they had gone with the process.

On welfare of the APC secretariat staff, the source added that it’s just an administrative delay that shouldn’t be an issue as the party was committed to discharging its obligations to the staff.

“That’s just a pure speculation, the party is discharging its obligation to the staff. In every institution, if there is a couple of days delay into the month, it shouldn’t be an issue.

“The only thing I will say is that the secretary staff are getting paid, sometimes, there might be administrative delay that holds back salaries.

“In this country where people are being owed months of salary, I think they should even be thankful for getting paid a few days into the month.”

On downsizing of the workforce, the source said it’s also speculative.