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The Imo State chapter of the People Democratic Party (PDP) has commenced a probe into the activities of former executive members of the party who defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Eastern Updates had earlier reported that no fewer than seven former executive members had announced their resignation from the party on Sunday.
24 hours later they met with Governor Hope Uzodinma and announced that they were joining the ruling party.
However, at a press conference at the party’s secretariat in Owerri on Thursday, the Financial Secretary of PDP in the state, Bedewell Ejimadu, said that the defected former members of the SWC of the party had long been working for the APC.
He said that the party had launched a probe into the activities of the former state committee members during the time they held sway in the party.
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Ejimadu said the party was not perturbed by the defection of the seven SWC members, stressing that the PDP would come out victorious at the November 11 governorship election in the state.
He said, ‘We as a party are aware that some of your colleagues were invited to an unauthorised Press briefing yesterday by seven unrepentant saboteurs of our party, in which they attempted to make several spurious and unfounded allegations against the party and our Dear National Secretary and Governorship Candidate, Senator Samuel Nnaemeka Anyanwu, the primary essence of this briefing is to categorically state that these allegations are mere figments of their imagination and that these characters are merely attempting to blackmail the party into stopping the ongoing investigation of financial misappropriation and election sabotage levelled against these individuals by the party.
‘We want to state categorically that no measure of blackmail or defection will stop the ongoing investigation and if they are found culpable, surely they will be handed over to the security agencies for prosecution.
‘It may interest you to know that already, preliminary investigations show that, some agents of our party that were recruited and forwarded to INEC by the Deputy Chairman, Sir Martin Ejiogu and Nze Ray Emeana the State Secretary for the last Presidential and National Assembly elections in some areas were APC members, this seriously hampered the availability of much-needed result sheets that some of our candidates at the tribunal needs to recover their stolen mandates.’
“Also, it is regrettable to state that as the Financial Secretary of the party in the state, I have no records of any financial dealings by the party, all proceeds from sale of nomination forms, sale of party cards, annual dues, levies and donations running into over N600m that have accrued to the party in the last three years. The party in the state received over N1.4billion naira from donations and candidates contributions for the last Presidential an National Assembly elections, this money was appropriated by Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, Nze Ray Emeana and Martin Ejiogu without the input or knowledge of the committee on finance of the presidential campaign council which I was the secretary, the manner of the distribution and utilization of these funds are a subject of investigation by the party and we will stop at nothing to unravel how a major portion of these funds developed wings.
