Joseph Ufuo in Benin City
With the clouds of dust raised over the illegal bank account issued to unsuspecting Edo state Peoples Democratic Party, PDP faithful aspiring to be LGA chairmen to pay in their nominations forms fees yet to settle, the Governor Godwin Obaseki and Hon Tony Aziegbemi led party in the state has been emersed in yet another financial scandal over the sales of forms.
This time, it is the turn of the Vice Chairmanship candidates in the 18 LGA in the forthcoming election to be found in an unusual situation of payment for nomination forms.
Truth Live News investigation revealed that Vice chairmanship candidates are compelled to cough out the sum of N400,000 (Four Hundred Thousand Naira) in cash to be paid to the state chairman, Tony Aziegbemi.
Recall that the TLN had reported a few months ago that the Aziegbemi-led PDP provided chairmanship aspirants with a private bank account number to pay their nomination form fees and the monies were later moved into the state party account when Truth Live News raised the alarm of a fake account being used to collect official payment for the Edo State PDP.
One of the Vice Chairmanship candidates who spoke to our correspondent on the condition of anonymity confirmed that they were being made to pay N400,000 in cash to the office of the state chairman, Tony Aziegbemi, which according to our source “was a strange practice”.
When our correspondent contacted the State PDP Chairman, Tony Aziegbemi for confirmation, he confirmed that the story is true and that he is collecting payment in cash from the candidates.
He said: “Yes, it is true. We have been collecting payment in cash because the State PDP Secretary and the Treasurer have refused to sign bank cheques for about 5 months, and we have an office that we must operate, Aziegbemi asserted.