by Pita Chib,Minna

The All Progressives Congress APC, in Niger State is having internal crisis as the State Chairman, Engr. Jibril Imam and his Financial Secretary Mohammed Idris have disagreed over alleged misappropriation of party funds

It was gathered that, after addressing journalists, the Party State Chairman who was invited over allegation of poor financial records was eventually detained on Tuesday and stayed overnight at the State Headquarters of the Nigeria Police follwing pressure from various quarters.

Findings revealed that the recent development in the party was not unconnected with the love lost between the State Party Chairman and the State Governor, Abubakar Bello.

It should be recalled that, the Police had invited the party Chairman to appear last week Friday 29th May, 2020, but the EXCO of the party after a meeting sent a delegation led by the state Secretary Barrister Mohammed Liman to the Police.

Our correspondent gathered that the Financial Secretary of the Party in the state, Mohammed Idris, had written a letter to Niger state police Commissioner alleging lack of record for over N848,700,000 recieved and expended by the party.

Idris who listed 11 sources for which such monies were received, said "as the Financial Secretary, I have not gotten records of expenses and incomes recieved by the party over time."

Addressing newsmen earlier,  at the State Secretariat, Minna the Chairman blamed the petitioner (Idris) for divulging confidential information about the Party to the Public.

Imam said,  "as I am speaking to you now, I have not seen the petitioner, we are all guided by our Party's Constitution and not by emotions.

"For a member to divulge information about the Party without the Party's consent and even went to the Police is against the party constitution, it's anti-party. All executive members swore oath to abide by the Party's Constitution.

"The Financial Secretary is mischievous, we have set up a 5-Man committee and he has been referred to them for further actions."

The aggrieved Financial Secretary, Idris Mohammed, told newsmen at the Correspondent office Minna, that "during the 2019 general elections, there were elections into the post of the President, Governor, Senators, House of Representatives and State House of Assemblies.

"The source of our revenue within that election was party levies , in fact, the Governor paid the sum of N1 million as his party levies, I wrote him the receipt and we started collecting levies from all of them. The trouble started after some days where I saw a withdrawal alert of N15 million, N6 million from one account, and N9 million from another account

"As the financial Secretary, I have no record of financial dealings; my duties as contained in the Party's Constitution article 14:8 has been breached. I was blocked from "receiving bank alert on the transaction of the party".

The disturbed Idris said "when I resumed as the state financial secretary, based on the constitutional provision, I prepared myself, all the records were ready, the ledgers, cash ledgers, files and other things to keep my records, but to my dismay, my Chairman was totally against it, he said that I did not come to the party to audit them. I kept quiet, I didn’t say anything.

Refuting claims from some quarters that he's backed by the Governor, Idris said, his decision to raise the alarm was because of his conscience, adding that "nobody influeneced my decision, and I swear by the rise of this sun that nobody in Niger State have given me N50 as a bribe to do what I am doing.

"So, I want the Press to get this one right as it is alledged by them that I have been given money to do what I have done. I swear that nobody have given me any money, it is my conscience that have given me the power to do what I have done.

He said the Party has several bank accounts but he is only aware of two accounts in Zenith Bank and one with Heritage Bank.

Furthermore, he said, "trouble started after some days when I saw withdrawal alerts of N15 million and N6 million from one account, and N9 million from another account.

"The two accounts are domiciled in Zenith Bank. I was very surprised because I have no record, there is no memo to that effect, there is no approval, there was no working committee meeting to approve the withdrawal of that money.

According to Idris "in an average, we generated over N300 million during the council elections, that money was squandered without record, I didn’t have any single record, even a single paper, I didn’t have any as record.

"I was told we have savings in heritage bank of about N300 million, that savings was meadnt for the congress but the government paid for everybody, so that money was not touched and supposed to be there.

"We raised N2.6 million cash in the two days from Federal and State Lawmakers, and was given to the treasurer but he didn’t remit the money to the bank.

"We raised over N100 million during the election as party levies, this money was squandered without any record; we have 25 members who from APC, they contribute N1 million each to the party, that money was diverted into a private account.

"There comes the LG council elections, Dr. Shaffi withdrew N30 million, another N30 million was withdrawn on the 30 August 2019.

"He withdrew withdrew N4 million, and also N17.6 million, N13 million, N4 million, N12.5 million.

He further stated that, "within that period, we got a percentage N40 million from the national after the sales of the forms for 2019 general g elections and it was paid into the Chairman's account."