By Myke Uzendu
National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Iyorchia Ayu and members of his National Working Committee (NWC) has resolved to take all necessary steps to complete the national headquarters of the party.
Senator Ayu made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja when he led the newPDP NWC to visit some of the facilities owned by the opposition party, including the Presidential Campaign Office, Legacy House located in Maitama and the abandoned national headquarters of the party located at central business district, Abuja.
Speaking to journalists after touring the facilities, senator Ayu expressed satisfaction with the quality of work done at the party headquarters. He said the construction of the edifice was a well thought out plan for the party.
He said the headquarters is an eleven floor edifice comprising of nine floors and two underground.
“It is a good initiative, it talks well of the party and the contractor that handled it. It is very clear the building is very solid, the structure is complete.
“The briefings that I have is that it is actually getting to finishing stages and most of the critical components were on ground and they’ve been move for safe keeping.
“After so many years, we’ve lost a lot of revenue, the building is 11 floors; two underground floors, and 9 floors of the ground”. Commenting on how the party intended to use the office complex upon completion, Ayu continued,
“The Idea as I understand is that PDP will occupy 3 floors, and the rest will be commercialize to generate revenue for the party. This is Central Business District, so not completing it means we have lost a lot of money”The opposition party chairman who said that the project could have been a major revenue source for the party, pledged to take all necessary step to ensure that the edifice is completed.
“We believe that apart from the critical stakeholders in the party, we’ll look for other ways and advise from experts to look into commercial considerations.
“If it is a private individual that has gone this far, I think that it is possible he will look for ways in the commercial sector to complete this building.
“It is a building that must be completed, it must never be allowed to remain wasted as is it. So the next way forward is to explore all possible avenues to complete this building.
“Every option will be considered, it is too premature for me to say categorically that this is exactly what we will do, but we’ll consider every possible option to make sure that this building is completed to make it generate revenue for the party and provide sufficient offices to the rest of the party, every options is open to us.
Also in his comment, the consulting architect, Suleiman Azeez who took them on the tour said that completing the edifice will be of great advantage to the party as it will generate trillions of naira to the coffers of PDP.
The construction of the PDP headquarters commenced around 2010 although funds raising for the edifice commence during the President Olusegun Obasanjo administration
The project is been handled by Bouygues Construction Company Ltd.
