Contractor sues PDP over Jonathan’s campaign debt

President Goodluck Jonathan with Governor Jonah Jang being welcomed by PDP Supporters in Jos

An Abuja High Court is set to begin hearing of a case against the Peoples Democratic Party for allegedly refusing to pay debt incurred during the election campaign of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The Chief Judge of the Federal Capital Territory High Court on Monday assigned the suit to a court in the Kuje area of Abuja.

Listed as defendants in the case are PDP, Director-General of Presidential Campaign Organization, Ahmadu Ali, and the Director of Finance of the Jonathan Presidential Campaign Organization, Nenadi Usman.

The campaign was sued over its alleged refusal to pay for services rendered by a company it engaged to broadcast a campaign message for Mr. Jonathan before the election.

The company, Silon Concepts Limited, alleged that PDP, Messrs Ali and Usman refused to pay an outstanding N70 million balance for a campaign contract awarded it by the PDP campaign.

The company claimed it was engaged to provide voice SMS campaign broadcast of Mr. Jonathan’s campaign message which it sent to eligible voters before the March 28 of the presidential poll.

The company said through its counsel, Festus Keyamo, that the defendants were unwilling to pay the N70m balance of the N100m contract sum, which they committed in writing to pay.

The counsel prayed the court to, among others, compel the defendants to pay the outstanding sum of N70m and N15m as cost of the suit plus an annual interest rate of 10 per cent on the sum of N70m until the said sum is fully liquidated.

Silon claimed that it successfully executed the project with continued assurance from the defendants that the balance would be made available in no distant time.

The plaintiff also said the PDP only paid N20million as initial payment instead of seed money of N100million to kick start the project as agreed.

It said Mr. Usman paid the N20m through a Zenith bank cheque in the name of a company, Jointrust Dimension Nigeria Limited, with account number 1010740698, in which the former senator serves as sole signatory.

The plaintiff added that the party agreed to pay the full balance for the contract before the election as the party’s contract letter of March 5 stated.

However, following consistent demand for payment and meetings with other directors of PDP campaign, the PDP only issued a cheque of N10m to his company on May 19, leaving a balance of N70million and promising to pay it in few days time.

But since then, Ms. Usman and her colleagues in the PDP campaign have disappeared with the balance, the company said.

It said a demand letter written on its behalf by Festus Keyamo Chambers to the defendants on May 25 was also ignored.

A statement by Festus Keyamo chambers say the court bailiff served the defendants the writs of summons since June 16 and that the case is scheduled to come up for mention on July 6.