The Chief Judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has assigned to court 37 in Kuje a suit against the Peoples Democratic Party; the Director-General of the PDPPresidential Campaign Organization, Ahmadu Ali; and a former Minister of Finance and Director of Finance of the PDPPCO, Senator Nenadi Usman, over their alleged refusal to pay for services rendered by a company duly engaged and commissioned to broadcast a campaign message for former President Goodluck Jonathan before the last presidential election.
The company, Silon Concepts Limited, in a suit filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, alleged that the PDP, Ali and Usman have refused to pay a N70 million balance for a campaign contract awarded it by the PDPPCO.
The company averred that it was engaged to provide “voice SMS campaign broadcast” of Jonathan’s campaign message, which it sent to eligible voters before the March 28, 2015 presidential poll, which the PDP lost.
The plaintiff through Festus Keyamo Chambers stated that the defendants were unwilling to pay the N70 million balance of the N100 million contract sum, which the PDPPCO committed in writing to pay.
It urged the court to, among others, compel the defendants to pay the outstanding sum of N70 million and N15 million as the cost of the suit plus an annual interest rate of 10 per cent on the sum of N70 million until the said sum is fully liquidated.
Silon claimed, in its originating processes, that it was commissioned by the PDP, through PDPPCO, and agreed to pay it N100 million as seed money to kick start a contract of sending “Voice SMS campaign broadcast” to eligible voters as part of the campaign for the party’s presidential candidate.
It 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 stated in a statement of claim that the PDP only paid N20 million as initial payment instead of the seed money of N100 million to kick start the project as agreed.
Usman paid the N20 million through a Zenith Bank cheque in the name of a company, Jointrust Dimension Nigeria Limited, with account number 1010740698, whose account Senator Usman serves as the sole signatory.
The plaintiff stated that the PDP had agreed to pay the full balance for the contract to it before the election as the party’s/contract letter of March 5, 2015 stated.
It added that following consistent demand for payment and meetings with other directors of PDPPCO, the PDP only issued a cheque of N10 million to his company on May 19, 2015, leaving a balance of N70 million and promised to pay it in few days time.
But since then, Usman, now a senator, and her colleagues in PDPPCO have disappeared with the balance.
A demand letter written on behalf of the plaintiff by Festus Keyamo Chambers to the defendants on May 25, 2015 was also ignored.
The defendants have been served the writs of summons since June 16, 2015 by the court bailiff.
The matter is scheduled to come up for mention on July 6, 2015.