By Shola Abayomi.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has blamed insufficient funding and harassment of its members by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for the delayed completion of its N16bn new national secretariat in Abuja.
The PDP lamented that many prominent members had declined donating to the project to avoid the prying eyes of the EFCC.
According to a statement credited to the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, issued through his media aide, Ike Abonyi, he maintained that the N16bn project has not been abandoned, and would be completed as soon as funds were available.
“The secretariat is not an abandoned project. Funding challenges stalled the work. The project is dear to the party, the National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee. Work will resume soon subject to availability of funds”, he said.
The new secretariat located at the Central Business District, Abuja, has been left uncompleted eleven years after the project was initiated by the NWC of the party, despite holding several fundraisers with billions of naira realized.
A member of the PDP National Executive Committee, who spoke to newsmen on condition of anonymity, added that the completion of the new secretariat suffered a huge setback after the party lost the 2015 presidential election.
He also noted that, consequent upon the harassment suffered by some prominent members of the party who were ‘persecuted’ by the EFCC, other wealthy members had declined donating to the project.