BREAKING: NDC Aspirant Drags Party to EFCC Over Alleged N20m Extortion [PHOTOS]
An aggrieved senatorial aspirant of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), accusing members of the party’s Senatorial Screening Committee of fraud, extortion, and criminal conspiracy involving 20 million Naira.
The petition was received by the Office of the Executive Chairman at the EFCC Headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.
The development follows recent claims by actor and politician Kenneth Okonkwo, who has been locked in a battle with NDC presidential candidate Peter Obi after alleging that the party’s leadership structured a system to extract mandatory fees from aspirants.
According to evidence leaked by whistleblower account Pidomnigeria on X, the political aspirant initially purchased the party’s official Expression of Interest Form for 3 million Naira, complying with the statutory regulations of the party leaders.
However, upon arriving in Abuja for the mandatory evaluation process, the aspirant was allegedly required to sign a legal undertaking pledging to abide by the committee’s decisions and waiving their right to seek judicial redress against the NDC in a court of law.
He said, “On reaching Abuja, they gave him a form to sign that he will abide to whatever the screening committee does, and will not sue the NDC to court. He was surprised, but he went ahead and signed. He felt they were going to screen him based on his profession, political exposure, grassroot structure, past records, qualifications obtained, etc.
“But to his wildest imagination, they started asking about his bank statements, the number of houses and properties he owns, cars and investments, about his financial capacity, etc.
“They told him that he has to show capacity if he really wants to be a senator.
They wrote down an FCMB account details for him, and asked him to pay the sum of 20,000,000 million naira into it. He paid the money, and the NDC shut their doors at him till date.
“He is now asking the party to refund him back his 20,000,000 million naira, and has filed a petition against them at the EFCC.”
The panel reportedly cross-examined the aspirant regarding bank statements, real estate holdings, vehicle ownership, and investment portfolios under the guise of verifying their financial capacity to contest.
Following the financial evaluation, the committee allegedly provided the aspirant with an un-receipted First City Monument Bank (FCMB) account number, directing an immediate transfer of 20 million Naira to secure the nomination slot. The aspirant complied with the directive, after which the NDC leadership cut off all administrative communications.
Okonkwo had recently voiced out similar allegations. Okonkwo had previously shared internal communications from House of Representatives aspirant Obunike Ohaegbu, which similarly alleged that the party used parallel state caucus structures to demand 10 million Naira from House aspirants and 20 million Naira from Senate hopefuls before candidate lists were secretly compiled at the Johnwood Hotel in Abuja.
