April 19, (THEWILL) – Former Deputy National Chairman and Board of Trustees member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has expressed surprise at the demands for an administrative fee from aspirants to various offices in Lagos State, by the Lagos State Working Committee, saying such extra payment is illegal.
Recall that the Lagos State Working Committee in a memo, dated 19th of April 2022, and sent to all aspirants signed by the State Publicity Secretary of the party, Hon. Hakeem Amode, states that the State Assembly aspirants should pay an administrative fee of N50,000 to the state financial Secretary.
It also directed that the sum of N200,000; N350,000 and N500,000 should be paid by Federal House of Representatives aspirants, Senatorial aspirants and governorship aspirants respectfully as an administrative fee.
George in a release he personally signed Tuesday, warned the aspirants to ignore such directives, saying such ‘administrative charge’ is unknown to the PDP constitution and therefore is illegal.
George also called on the National Chairman of the party, Dr Iyorchia Ayu, to call the Lagos Exco to order and stop them from imposing unnecessary fees on aspirants, who have already paid the money for forms of intents and nomination forms for their desired positions at the party headquarters.
He said that all the states chapters will get a certain percentage of the money already paid to the national body of the party, hence there is no need to further charge the aspirants any fees
Chief Bode George further said if the Lagos State Working Committee embarks on any extortion or illegal collection of money from the aspirants, he will not hesitate to petition the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
“I hereby warn all our aspirants to be vigilant and not to pay any illegal fees. The act of extortion being embarked upon by the Lagos Exco should be shunned and ignored.
“I equally warned the Exco not to extort our party members. They are to pay only fees that are legal”, George said in the release.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
