Atiku’s ADC owing salaries for over 12 months, APC PCC alleges

By Omeiza Ajayi

ABUJA: The All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council APC-PCC has alleged that the African Democratic Congress ADC has not paid its staff salaries for more than 12 months, and urged Nigerians to reject the party and its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, in the next general elections.

In a statement on Monday in Abuja by its Spokesperson, Dele Alake, the council said it had come to its attention that the ADC National Working Committee NWC, “led by Senator David Mark as Chairman and Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola as Secretary, has refused and neglected to pay party staff for over a year.”

“We find it unconscionable that a political party that has made many grandiose promises to hoodwink Nigerians owes its workers for more than 12 months. Owing staff who come to work every day and who rely on the salaries for their daily sustenance is wicked and reprehensible”, APC added. 

The council said the development had exposed “the emptiness and insincerity of those parading themselves as ‘new saviours’.”

It maintained that ADC leaders and their presidential candidate, Atiku, “do not mean well and can do nothing for our country.”

According to the APC PCC, “Their desperation for power is driven by personal aggrandisement and venomous ill will against President Bola Tinubu. A party that cannot pay its cleaners and workforce cannot be entrusted with our country’s affairs.”

The council also turned to Atiku’s record as an employer, saying he “has a reputation for owing his employees.”

“While he regularly junkets to the UAE, staff at his Gotel Communication and other businesses also went months without pay and staged protests over unpaid salaries and other benefits,” the statement said.

On Aregbesola, the council said his record “on paying workers’ salaries and pensioners in Osun State, where he was a governor for 8 years, was abysmal.”

“As governor, he mismanaged the state’s finances to the point that he could not pay workers. His government thus introduced quarter-salary and, at times, half-salary payments. As for pensioners, he abandoned them for more than four years. Many died because they could not afford the basics of life”, the APC campaign added. 

The APC-PCC said it is therefore not surprised that ADC, harbouring birds of the same feather, cannot pay its workers’ salaries. 

The council then issued what it called a warning to Nigerians and working people: “reject ADC. Reject Atiku Abubakar and reject all ADC candidates in the next general elections. They do not have the interest of our country and our people at heart.

“A party that aspires to govern Nigeria and which cannot be trusted with something as basic as the management of its own affairs and the welfare of its workforce should be rejected by Nigerians.”