Breaking: Mass Resignation Hits Opposition Party

A fresh crisis has hit the Peoples Democratic Party  PDP as about 30 members of its staff have turned in their letters of resignation.

The Punch reports that the wave of resignation, which started in the administrative department of the party a few days ago, has also moved to other departments.

The employees of the once-rich party had yet tocome to terms with the cutting of their salaries by the party’s National Working Committee  NWC since August.

They have been told that the agreement was reached with the NWC members that they would not sack workers if they (workers) agreed to take a wage cut.One of the workers, who resigned her appointment two days ago, noted that the party became insensitive to its workers. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she said:“The soul of this party has gone.

All the noise you hear about rebranding is nothing but a sham. It will lead nowhere.“Majority of us are not only leaving the party’s employment, we are opting out of the party’s membership. We are going elsewhere,”she Nwachukwu Ngige, an employee in the publicitydepartment, explained that he was leaving the employment of the party because the PDP “nowcelebrates mediocrity over competence.”

According to him, interlopers have taken over the party.“We are leaving the party in droves. It is sad. Interlopers have taken over the party’s administration.“I’m not resigning my membership of the party; I am only leaving as a paid employee of the party.“But there is no way I will work under those who are inferior to me intellectually.

I can’t continue to function when my inferiors suddenly become my bosses.“The party has become a huge joke where brilliance is punished and mediocrity is celebrated,”he said.

Also speaking, Kenneth Gyado recalled that he and his colleagues worked for five months without salaries when they were employed.“I was employed as a chief publicity officer in 1998 when the party had no name and I joined a few others to work for five months without being paid.“

Those of us who have agreed to leave were told that we would be paid just 50% of our entitlements, but we don’t know how it would becalculated yet.

“Are they going to use the current salary or the one they were paying us before they decided to cut it by 35%? We don’t know yet,”he said.

However, Gyado noted that the party had paid the December salaries of its workers.When contacted, Solomon Onwe, the deputy national secretary of the party, who is also a member of the NWC, said he was not aware of the mass resignation of the workers.

Victor Kwon, the national legal adviser of the party, said that he was not competent to speak on the issue as he had been away for more thantwo weeks.

A week ago,the PDP declared that it was bankruptand hence could not continue with theconstruction of its new national secretariat.

According to the party’s national leadership, thePDP does not have enough money to complete its multi-billion naira project located at the central business district in Abuja.