The South-West Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Adepegba Otemolu, has denied the allegation that he collected money in dollar denomination from President Goodluck Jonathan and refused to release the fund to the 746 coordinators of his campaign, in Ogun State.
Otemolu made the denial in Abeokuta on Friday, while briefing journalists on the attack on him by the coordinators last Wednesday.
The coordinators, drawn from the 236 wards in the state, had gathered for a sensitisation meeting at a hotel along Quarry Road in Abeokuta last Wednesday. Shortly after some of them went berserk when Otemolu and the National Auditor of the party, Fatai Adeyanju, told them their honorarium was not ready.
They were reportedly held hostage for four hours. As Otemolu and Adeyanju attempted to leave the venue, Otemolu was rough-handled and his Honda Pilot jeep vandalised.
The coordinators were said to have seen a receipt of N1m issued by the hotel for food and drinks not served at the seminar.
Otemolu said, “I was invited to Abuja as both a zonal officer and a representative of Ogun State, together with others for a sensitisation seminar by the Presidential Mobilisation Committee, headed by Prof. Jerry Gana last week. At that seminar, we were taken on the topic, ‘Operation deliver your ward.’
“After that, we were told to go back to our states and replicate same. Prof. Gana promised to send money for the sensitisation seminar on Monday.
“But since the money did not come, we did not organise it. But by Wednesday, there was pressure from some party members that we should hold it. But I drew their attention to the fact that the fund had not been released from Abuja.
“On that Wednesday morning, I got a call from the National Auditor that he had just flown in from Abuja for the seminar.
“We went ahead and we held the seminar and I delivered my own lecture which was highly appreciated by the coordinators. But after the lecture, they began to demand for their honorarium. I told them the money has not been released and that whenever it is released, everyone will be posted. That was how the uproar began.”
