Jonathan’s team cost him re-election – PDP

The NWC said such negative campaign made it impossible for party leaders in the North to garner support for Mr. Jonathan in the region.Some of those in the forefront of the campaign against General Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, were Jonathan’s wife, Patience; his campaign office spokesperson, Femi Fani-Kayode; and  Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose. Governors […]

The NWC said such negative campaign made it impossible for party leaders in the North to garner support for Mr. Jonathan in the region.
Some of those in the forefront of the campaign against General Muhammadu Buhari, the President-elect, were Jonathan’s wife, Patience; his campaign office spokesperson, Femi Fani-Kayode; and  Ekiti State governor, Ayo Fayose.
Governors of the party are said to be angry with the NWC for leading the party to defeat in the general elections and demanded that the chairman Adamu Muazu and his executive members must be sacked.
The NWC also opened up on campaign funds spending in response to accusation that it pocketed campaign funds.
Briefing newsmen yesterday in Abuja, PDP national publicity secretary, Olisa Metuh said the party realised over N8 billion from the sale of expression of interest and nomination forms last year.
He said the party spent N500 million on President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election campaign and at least, N100 million for each governorship candidate of the party across the country.
He added that it spent huge sums of money on the campaigns of its National Assembly candidates.
Metuh stressed that the NWC would resist any attempt to sack it before the expiration of its tenure in March next year.
He said some members of the party, including ambitious aides and associates of President Jonathan, were using their perceived closeness to him to further their “heinous agenda” of injecting crisis in the party with a view to hijacking the structure for their selfish interests.
The national publicity secretary said that the NWC would make the party’s accounts public for the sake of transparency in line with the freedom of information act.
“I can tell you from my own records that we generated billions. I think we generated more than N7billion, N8billion or N9billion.
“The first initial donation we made was half a billion to the Presidential campaign funds even though we were not involved in raising funds for the presidential campaign.  
“They generated campaign funds up to N21 billion. The party was not involved in it and the party cannot account for it because we were not involved in that money.
“It was a Jerry Gana Committee and they handled it and nobody can question us for that.
“There is no gubernatorial candidate that received less than N100 million from this Working Committee and the House of Assembly candidates across the country got money from us.
“It depends on the state. These monies were given to some ministers and some people to distribute to the state.
“In some states it was the campaign coordinators that we gave, in some states, we gave to the governors or directly to the candidates of the party.  “In the North where the type of campaign that we generated made it impossible for our leaders in the North to garner support for our candidate because of the hate campaign that was generated, we are not answerable for it.
“Whilst I am not holding any excuse for them we cannot be held accountable for issues that were generated that worked against our candidates in the North. This is clear, all Nigerians knew that,” Metuh said.
He said the NWC members were pained and saddened that Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State had called a meeting insisting that the present crop of the party’s national leadership should resign when they had spent about N200 million during his governorship campaign last year.   
Metuh added President Jonathan, PDP governors and other key stakeholders of the party including governors and legislators-elect are deeply concerned about this development.
 He added that they had intervened to ensure the desired stability in the party.
He said the NWC under the chairmanship of Alhaji  Adamu Mu’azu was duly elected and would be fully in control of the administration of the party until the expiration of its tenure in March, 2016 in line with the provisions of the party’s constitution.
However, a source close to the PDP leadership told Daily Trust last week that the leaders still believed they did nothing wrong to warrant their resignation.
“We did our best in the best way we could. This is in spite of the fact that resources which should have been given to the party ended up with TAN (Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria),” the source said.