EMBATTLED DIKO deputy Nicos Pittokopitis was yesterday attacked ‘from within’, with two would-be DIKO deputies urging the party to distance itself from a loans scandal involving Pittokopitis.
A state-appointed probe committee is currently looking into claims that Paphos deputy Pittokopitis abused his position as chairman of the Paphos co-operative bank by exceeding his overdraft and failing to repay a series of loans. Pittokopitis, who is first DIKO vice-president, insists his actions constituted nothing worse than a “breach of etiquette”.
With the May parliamentary elections just round the corner, the Pittokopitis scandal has embarrassed DIKO. Things got worse for the centre-right party when the Pittokopitis revelations were followed by disclosures about DIKO itself failing to repay loans granted by the same Paphos co-op bank.
Yesterday, two DIKO parliamentary candidates from Paphos said it was time the party made clear it had nothing to do with the Pittokopitis affair.
“We have to separate the loans of the DIKO party from the personal actions of Mr Pittokopitis,” said DIKO hopeful Savvas Vergas. “The DIKO loans are one thing and Mr Pittokopitis’ loans quite another,” added fellow candidate Panicos Kourides.
“The DIKO loans were taken out entirely legally and the delayed repayments will begin to be paid back stage-by-stage,” Kourides added, taking a swipe at Pittokopitis.
“If I was chairman of the savings bank I would resign from my post,” he added. Vergas said he would never have allowed himself to get into the predicament Pittokopitis was in.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
