..Member Petitions House, Accuses Minority Leader of Misappropriation
Even as all is not well with the People’s Democratic Party, PDP at the national level with some of the party’s governors at logger heads with the Presidential Candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, coupled with simmering differences ravaging the party leaders of the Imo State chapter, members of the state legislature from the party have opened their can of worms. The fresh frontier of warfare bedeviling the umbrella symbol party at the moment has to do with lack of trust and crisis of confidence.
The whirlwind blowing across the PDP touched on the party members in the House of Assembly when accusations and counter accusations concerning gift of dollars erupted in the state legislature.
Trumpeta learnt that some of the PDP lawmakers led by the member for Owerri North State Constituency, Hon Philip Ejiogu is spoiling for war against his colleague and party member, Hon Anyadike Nwosu of Ezinihitte State Constituency.
From what was observed on the floor of the House on Tuesday at the resumption of Plenary Session, Hon Johnson Duru of Ideato South presented a petition said to be written and signed by Ejiogu.
According to the details of the petition, Ejiogu accused the Minority Leader who is of his party of allegedly getting involved in a suspected scandal rocking the Imo lawmakers of PDP extraction. In the petition. The petition accused the lawmakers of allegedly acting not in conformity with the expectations of his position as Minority Leader and member of the House.
Information available to Trumpeta has it that one of the promoters of the party and a governor from the South South Zone reportedly dropped a reasonable amount said to be in foreign currency to the PDP lawmakers in the House in appreciation of their steadfastness and support to the party. It was further gathered that the money was handed to the party’s House member for onward reach out to other members of the caucus through one of the PDP candidates for the 2023 senatorial elections in the state.
Revelations have it that when it was discovered that due process may not have been adopted in the sharing of the money without the affected members involved in the process, the bubble burst with mutual suspicion and counter accusations creating rumpus in the PDP which metamorphosed to writing of the petition.
After the petition was read and submitted, the Speaker, Rt Hon Barr Emeka Nduka referred the matter to the Committee on Ethics and Privileges and asked them to report back in two weeks time.
When confronted on the matter, Ejiogu in apparent bid to own up the petition informed Assembly Correspondents that the matter is before committee and it would amount to prejudice to comment on it even as both the Clerk on duty during plenary and the Speaker read out his name and signature as authenticity of the petition.
Efforts to reach the accused and get his own side of the story proved abortive as he was unavailable when inquiries were made towards him.
Going by the development, Trumpeta can reveal that there may be causalities if there is merit in the petition.
This newspaper recalls that a similar allegation though not pronounced was responsible for the ouster of a former speaker of the House who was forced to quit office when impeachment threat was handed over to him for allegedly not giving a good of a huge sum handed to him for his colleagues from the centre of power in the state.
On realizing that the former speaker wasn’t sincere in handling of the members, his colleagues quickly punished him with the impeachment threat that led to his resignation.
