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Tag: Bode George

Bode George: PDP ‘ll overcome its challenges

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, spoke with EMMANUEL OLADESU and MUSA ODOSHIMOKHE in Lagos on the crisis in the opposition party, the Edo primary and other partisan issues.

Senator Sheriff has described the Edo governorship primary as illegal. What is your reaction?

My reaction to that is that as my friend, I appeal to him because I have known him even before I came into politics. I was in the Navy, when I knew him. That kind of statement portends two areas of concern for the party. So, as a friend, I want to appeal to him that he should distance himself away from this political lunacy, because there is a subsisting legal directive that he should not parade himself as chairman of the party. So, what other authority does he want? He should have respect for the rule of law.

There was a directive from a court that there should be no election into the office of chairman, secretary, and auditor. The party complied, and there was no election into those positions. According to our constitution, the convention has a right to set up a committee it deems fit. So, legally, the Ahmed Markafi Committee is constitutionally established and it has the right to manage the party until the next convention. Sheriff has ceased to be chairman of the party.

This crisis has prevented the PDP from playing the role of a vibrant opposition…

What he does not understand is that the PDP is not the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP). The PDP is a formidable grassroots political party and we have an incredible resilience. Of course, it is affecting our focus because of the court injunctions; political parties are not run that way.

I want to say also that we should take part of the blame, because when this judicial rascality came into the party, there is a section in the party’s constitution that forbids any individual from going to court without exhausting all the avenues within the party. So, most of these people who headed to court, thereby creating unnecessary diversion, should have been fired according to the party’s law.

Everybody kept quiet because they didn’t want to offend anybody. So, if you don’t like heat, get out of the kitchen. This is a party that has rules and regulations which were conceived by the founding fathers.

It is believed that the APC may have planted Sheriff in the PDP? What is your take on this?

I do not have concrete facts, but if you look at the behavioural pattern, what would you conclude? He is playing dirty politics. If you don’t put up the real story, rumours would start flying. Whether it is true or not, I am advising him not to be a cannon fodder. He should not be used by others; what would be his benefit? Does he intend to decimate the PDP? He can’t achieve it. The PDP is deeply-rooted with the people. Yes, we made our mistakes, we have learned our lessons and we are ready to present new managers for the party. We must convince Nigerians that we are ready to manage them again.

What is your position on the decision of the EFCC to freeze the bank account of Governor Fayose?

I am going to be like an elder here. Ayo is my son, the first time he came to be a governor; it was impressive. Two wrongs cannot make a right. I read a presentation by a lawyer on the matter and I also read the EFCC version of the accusation leveled against him. My plea is this, as a concerned Nigerian; we still have the rule of law and everybody must subject himself to it. The EFCC cannot do anything to him because of Section of 308. They should be patient, because the law is no respecter of anybody. I have gone through my own experiences; the law is still there. They want to fight him because they said Ayo made certain comments against the First Lady. If it is proven that it is wrong, I know Ayo would be the first to jump up and apologise. But, two wrongs cannot make a right.

The position of the EFCC was well stated in the newspaper, but how many people would read that? So, they should balance it.

What is your reaction to the faceoff between the Senate and the Presidency?

My take would be like a spectator, because I am not directly involved. I think this is the time for some senior Nigerians, former presidents, and elders to get involved. The government is a tripod; if one leg is wobbling, then there is instability; if two legs are wobbling, then the instability is increased. Now, of course, the judiciary won’t talk even if they are aggrieved.

It does not matter whether it is party A or party B. Recently, the President had a meeting with the National Assembly members during his one year anniversary. I believe something should be done. If it were our government and our party, the Board of Trustees (BoT) would have waded in, because that’s one of their functions. I don’t know whether they have a BoT or not; if they don’t have, they have elders.

When I listened to the language on the floor, I was a bit scared. Is it so bad? Where are the leaders of the party? If the Senate President and his deputy are being charged to court for alleged forgery, it gives me worry, and they should play it very gently.

There is no problem in the PDP. Sheriff, who has just joined us, Wale Oladipo and the other young man, for auditor or whatever, should go home quietly. All the other zones are stable and we would do the elections and compete with vigour that God gave us and battle Edo to give Edo people brand new government.

There is this impression that Southwest is backing Sheriff, because Buruji, Oladipo and others are angling to become eventual leaders in the region…

The point is this: you cannot but find Buruji’s hand in all these. His tentacles are all over the place. He is an ardent supporter of Wale Oladipo and Adewole Adeyanju. Now, I want to talk to both of them to cast their minds back when they were being nominated to represent the Southwest. We had a meeting in my house in Abuja, they had so many other contenders. All the other zones had nominated their own exco members. When the elders met, they were there. We begged those competing with them to step down. We did not go to the field looking like an untutored and uncultured zone. That was what we did. Now, they are trying to use the old Akintola taku mentality; that is why they have refused to leave. They went there representing Yoruba people. A professor, Wale, a professor of some kind of physical or scientific nomenclature, I would expect him to have a deeper and more rational mind; a reflective mind that portrays what we in my part of the world call Omoluwabi.

July 15, 2016
Is Bode George back from exile?

The current address of Chief Bode George, the former Deputy National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is a puzzle many are eager to unravel today.

The question being asked is if George, who vowed to go on exile should PDP be defeated by ‘political upstarts’ in the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), has actually returned back to the country? If yes, how did this flamboyant politician return to his country home without adequate publicity?

It would be recalled that the die-hard pro-Jonathan politician made good his promise to vacate his Lagos abode following PDP’s defeat. His hushed voice was then heard from outside the country. But on Wednesday, a paper he purportedly delivered somewhere in Lagos, was published in a national daily.

As the venue, mode and other details of the said event were not stated, many are left wondering if ‘Boy George’ actually returned from self exile while Muhammadu Buhari and the APC are still in charge?

And hear what the PDP chieftain reportedly said to his ‘listeners’: “Should the ruling power resort to a sweeping triumphalism of a heedless victor, discountenancing the indices of balance and equity, contemptuous of justice and the fairness doctrine, the road would be rough and tragic.” Well, some fear this is an advice that should have come some four years ago, when Oga George and his people were in absolute power. Or what do you think?

November 22, 2015
Bode George and Ooni of Ife eulogy

Last week, Bode George, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, retired naval commodore and former Military Governor of Ondo State, wrote what in his estimation passes for a moving eulogy on Oba Okunade Sijuwade, the Ooni of Ife. Entitled “Oonirisa: Passage of a Great Monarch,” the well-written eulogy was however full of misinformation, vexatious generalisations, and outright mendacity. Having been gifted the honorary title of Atoona Oodua, which he translated as “the traditional pathfinder of our ancestral beginning,” Chief George had ample reasons to lyricise his benefactor. He pursued the exercise with unabashed candour. But he had no reason to lie or mislead the public, if that habit were not second nature to him.

The late Oba Sijuwade undoubtedly won the plaudits heaped on him by Chief George, for, after all, virtually all other eulogies spoken or written on the oba by commentators from diverse backgrounds agreed in tone and vigour with that of the PDP chieftain. Had Chief George limited himself to simply eulogising the late monarch, few eyebrows would have been raised. But in his effusions, amplified by purple prose, the PDP chieftain, a self-confessed conservative and bold and unapologetic enemy of the progressives, dragged Oba Sijuwade, corpse and rites, into his mendacious accounts of recent political events.

Chief George spoke proudly of Oba Sijuwade’s last public outing in November 2014, the Yoruba Unity Summit, held at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife. In just one paragraph of four sentences, the PDP chieftain managed to tell a lie in every sentence. First, he claimed for himself the privilege of assisting Oba Sijuwade to organise the summit. He may be the Atoona Odua, with all the grand import of the honorary title, and Oba Sijuwade might indeed be his genuine benefactor, but it is doubtful whether the late monarch actually conceived the summit and, feigning ignorance of the liability Chief George’s name constituted to such a grand task, asked the Atoona Odua to help convoke the summit. Chief George can sometimes be amusingly self-effacing. What is more likely to be the truth, a fact many commentators attested to last November, is that Chief George actually inspired the summit, and merely borrowed Oba Sijuwade’s name to sanctify and canonise a gathering many considered to be partisan and dubious.

Second, Chief George claimed the summit was predicated on the search for ‘unity and brotherhood in the Yoruba nation.’ This was an egregious lie. If anything, the summit was predicated on the totally abhorrent premise of convoking a gathering designed to show Chief George’s invitees as the cream of Yoruba leadership, irrespective of the summit’s capacity to harden divisions among the Yoruba. Third, the PDP chieftain pontificated that the summit eschewed ‘political biases or ideological contentions.’ Chief George was simply being frivolous with language. Not only was the summit an embodiment of political biases, contrary to his asseveration, it was a mortifying exemplification of ideological contentions, probably the most pernicious the crowd that gathered on that university campus could muster and dispense.

Fourth, Chief George claimed the summit celebrated Yoruba roots and reinforced Yoruba identity as a (nationally) unifying factor. These claims were grandiose and bogus. If any celebration took place on the OAU campus on November 28, 2014, it was but a garish display of vanity, fashion and meretriciousness. There was neither depth nor substance in what took place on that campus: not in the discussions, which were rambling and ignoble, nor in the personalities that gathered, the most notable among whom was the garrulous and fawning Governor Ayo Fayose who debauched the entire meeting with his violent hysterics and loud denunciations of former president Olusegun Obasanjo.

Chief George then implausibly concluded his eulogy by claiming that “All prominent sons and daughters of Oduduwa graced the occasion without partisan recourse.” This absolutely fictional account of what was supposed to have transpired on the OAU campus last November has value only as a fecund piece of Georgian imagination well scripted. It has no bearing on reality. The only people appearing to resemble prominence in the summit were a few Southwest PDP bigwigs, most of them without any electoral value, as the general election of 2015 was shortly to demonstrate.

The so-called Yoruba Unity Summit was organised by Chief George to massage the ego of the pressured former president Goodluck Jonathan. He had been trailing in the polls and needed a jolt of public relations electricity to rekindle his flagging campaign in the Southwest. He therefore dutifully attended the summit and pledged he would protect and advance Yoruba interest far more assiduously than he did in his first term. In return, he secured the approbation of the summiteers, all of them PDP supporters needing neither sermons nor conversion, and having an eye on the main chance.

Chief George penned the eulogy to reinforce the image of Oba Sijuwade as a gem. It however achieved the contrary objective of reminding the public how the controversial politics, if not the disputed principles, of the late first class oba tended to vitiate his transcendental image as the Oonirisa, an oba who nearly transformed into a living deity, an oba who could neither do wrong nor even think wrong. The Georgian eulogy will lead many analysts to question the traditional propriety and wisdom of conferring a glittering title on a man so undeserving of the honour. Those who know Chief George, however, would not be too shocked by his ‘dazzling’ portraiture of Oba Sijuwade. It is in Chief George to hate his opponents with perfect hatred, and to revere his benefactors with unfathomable lack of moderation and grace.

August 23, 2015
Bode George as new Andrew

Everyone knows Bode George — popular with some, notorious with others, anonymous with none.

Everyone too, knew Andrew — the iconic rogue in that famous television commercial of 1984, threatening to “check out” of the country, just after Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s first coming (as military head of state), to which came the General’s prompt riposte: “Nigeria is our only country. We must stay and salvage it together!”

History, of course, has a way of playing cruel jokes! Could Chief Bode George then be the Andrew of Gen. Buhari’s second coming, this time as elected president?

Just look at the parallels! In 1984, Gen. Buhari and his military junta had just sacked the Shehu Shagari presidency, which 2nd Republic National Party of Nigeria (NPN) administration had collapsed the state and beggared the country.

With that crunch many Nigerians, great ones for fleeing from their problems thinking that would make the problems go away, were threatening to brain-drain. The Andrew commercial was a creative response by the Buhari government — and boy, did it capture popular imagination!

Sure, Andrew didn’t quite nip the brain-drain, which became a deluge under the Ibrahim Babangida regime, which played further yo-yo with the people’s destiny. But it, at least, showed the resolve of the Buhari government to tackle a clear and urgent problem. That, unfortunately, it couldn’t do; with its dictatorial scowl and martial high-handedness.

But fast-forward, 2015. Like Shagari’s NPN before it, Goodluck Jonathan’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had run the state prostrate and the people ragged. But as it put virtually every foot wrong, Presidential Candidate Buhari, with his All Progressives’ Congress (APC) opposition alliance, loomed. It required no especial acuity to project PDP was heading for doom.

Was it then fear? Electioneering rascality? Soap box hyperbole to rouse the flagging faithful?

Whatever it was, Bode George was emphatic: “I will go on exile, should Buhari become president”! Now, was this earnest, in other words, literal: suggesting that Chief George meant exactly what he said?

Or was it a literary code-speak, suggesting a Buhari win was an impossibility, in the context of an equally misguided Doyin Okupe, the ace presidential bull dog, who kept on barking and huffing, huffing and barking, his notorious old wives’ tale: Buhari is unelectable! Buhari is unelectable! Wruff! Wruff!

Now, George is a veteran of a sort — at least, in Lagos terms, a veteran electoral loser, even with his succession of great George hopes: the latest being Jimi Agbaje, but earlier dashed hopes being Ade Dosunmu, Musiliu Obanikoro, the late Funsho Williams, etc. On the Lagos front, he was — and is — always a serial loser.

But not at Abuja — not with the seeming impregnable PDP rigging machine, which was to go without stutter for 60 years in the first instance! Could Papa George be thinking of this quiet but happy arsenal when he made his exile boast?

Well, Bode George’s nightmare has come true — Buhari is president-elect! Perhaps to make the grim cup pass over him, Brinkman George grabbed, with both hands, Oba Akiolu’s dire caution before the Lagos governorship poll of April 11, perhaps hoping that the backlash, with reportedly renewed presidential dollars, would do the trick. But no dice! No refuge for our loquacious George!

So, will Pa George play Andrew of Buhari’s second coming, or eat crow?

Hardball is setting up a Bode George Andrew watch!

May 5, 2015
Okon to accompany Bode George to exile

Over since retired Commodore Olabode George publicly declared that he would voluntarily head for exile if General Mohammadu Buhari won the presidential election, tongues have been wagging as to whether the old sailor would make good his threat, now that the no-nonsense general has been elected president.

But it seems as if the man famously known as Lagos boy has been stalling and stonewalling about “checking out”, like the even more famous Andrew. Why should a sailor be afraid of the open seas?

But it appears that the ever proactive Okon is having none of that nonsense. Okon is a traditional believer in the saying that a man’s word should be his bond and can be a very nasty enforcer indeed.

The euphoria that greeted General Buhari’s victory had hardly died down when the mad boy crashed into snooper’s bedroom dressed like somebody headed for Siberia even as he carried a colourful basket oozing the aroma of akara, ewa aganyin, sawa and other Lagosian delicacies. A hungry snooper was more interested in the contents of the bag.

“Okon , what is that bag?” a gamey snooper inquired with a cajoling voice.

“Oga no be for you, na small chops for dem Lagos Boy Bode George”. Okon replied.

“But why?” snooper asked with a hint of disappointment.

“Oga abi you don forget say the man say him go vamoose if dem mala general come win? Naim I say make I come take permission follow am make sure say him reach dem oyinbo obodo. If he no want go again, I go get dem Eyo boys for Isale Eko make dem flog am well well”, the mad boy screeched like a man possessed. At this point, snooper could hardly resist bursting into laughter. But Okon simply pressed on with the offensive.

“Oga, no be joke at all at all. I dey hope say dem wuruwuru man no go say na Israel he wan go becos I no go take dat from am”, Okon screamed. Snooper was now alarmed.

“And what is your problem with Israel?” snooper demanded.

“Ha oga, no be dat place dem say when dem quench dem go wake after three days? We know dey dat kind army arrangement.” The mad boy snarled and then moved closer eyeing snooper with a knowing smile.

“Oga, I hope say dem Lagos Boy go leave him beautiful wife behind for obodo”, Okon whispered with malignant mirth.

“And what is your own with his wife?” snooper queried.

“Ha Oga, Okon dey Kampe. Like dem juju man for Uyo go say, a trial will conceive you!” At this point, snooper chased away the mad boy.

April 12, 2015
Bode George defeated in his polling unit

The Peoples Democratic Party candidate chieftain in Southwest, Chief Bode George, lost in his polling unit during Saturday’s governorship poll in Lagos.

His party polled 87 votes, while the All Progressive Congress scored 137.

Mr. Jimi Agbaje is PDP’s governorship candidate in the state, while Akinwunmi Ambode is flying the APC flag in the poll.

April 11, 2015
Jonathan loses at Aso Villa units

•Sambo, Agbaje, Ribadu, Bode George, Obanikoro, Fani-Kayode, others lose at units

Some heavyweight politicians lost their polling units in yesterday’s elections.

A major loss by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is the one at the two polling units in front of Aso Villa – the Presidential abode.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate Gen. Muhammadu Buhari won in the two units.

Buhari got a total of 613 votes, while Jonathan polled a total of 595 votes.

Vice President Namadi Sambo got the same treatment in the former polling unit (Kabala 005) in Kaduna where the APC received overwhelming majority of votes.

The APC scored 386 votes to beat the PDP that scored 53 votes in the presidential election. APC got 385 and 369 votes in the senate and house of assembly elections respectively while the PDP got 59 and 62 respectively.

The results were announced by the presiding officer Abdulfatah Ali.

In Lagos State Governorship candidate Jimi Agbaje’s Apapa polling unit the APC won 126 votes while PDP won 60.

In the senate contest, APC polled 129 while PDP won 61.

In the House of Representatives race, APC won 126 while the PDP won 62.

PDP governorship candidate in Adamawa State Nuhu Ribadu failed to deliver his Yola polling unit to Jonathan.

In the presidential contest APC won 320 votes to PDP’s 124 while in the senatorial race, Peoples Democratic Movement (PDM) candidate won 271 votes to PDP’s 73.

PDP Southwest leader Chief Olabode George’s Evans Street polling unit on Lagos Island also fell to the APC candidate who took it narrowly with 109 votes to PDP’s 108.

Minister of State Foreign Affairs 2 Mr. Musiliu Obanikoro lost in his bid to deliver his unit to Jonathan.

Minister of National Planning, Dr. Sulaiman Abubakar, failed in his polling unit 006, Ode-Opobiyi Agbaji area (Ilorin West Local Government Area) in the presidential election with 146 votes to 39.

PDP Presidential campaign council spokesman Mr. Femi Fani-Kayode also could not deliver his unit. He voted in Ile Ife, Osun State.

At PG Hall Ife Centre 013/11, the APC candidate scored 127 to PDP’s 45 votes.

But Vice President Namadi Sambo won his polling unit at Police College unit with 105 votes to the APC’s 20.

But Kaduna State APC Governorship candidate Nasir El Rufai got 430 votes in his Urgwan Sarki’s unit for the APC candidate to PDP’s 11.

Ex-Borno Governor Ali Modu Sheriff and Senator Ahmed Makarfi (Kaduna) also failed to deliver.

Ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar won his Ajiya polling unit in Adamawa State for Gen. Buhari with 280 votes to Jonathan’s 60 votes.

At APC Presidential running mate Prof. Yemi Osinbajo’s VGC unit in Lekki, Lagos, the APC won 718 votes to PDP’s 138.

Some other unit results are:

APC wins in Obasanjo’s unit

At Obasanjo’s polling unit ward, APC polled 98 against PDP’s 8 and SDP 12 for the House of Representatives seat. For Senate, APC got 93, PDP 8 and SDP 15.

Results at ex-Governor Bola Tinubu’s voting unit 047 in Alausa Ikeja.

Presidential APC 180, PDP 55, Senate APC 181 and PDP 53, Reps: APC 61

Senator Tinubu’s unit 034 Ikoyi, Lagos

Presidential: APC 106, PDP 25

Senate: APC 103, PDP 16

Reps: APC 103, PDP 16

Governor Fashola’s State Grammar School, Surulere 002

President 318, PDP 135

Senate APC318, PDP 129

Rep APC 326, PDP 114

House minority leader Femi Gbajabiamila Elizabeth Fowler PU 014

President APC 123, PDP 81, Senate APC 118, PDP 64

Rep: APC 124, PDP 46

Ex-Governor Kayode Fayemi’s polling unit 09 Ward 11 Isan Ekiti

President APC 140, PDP 24

Senate APC 135, PDP 21

Rep APC 142, PDP 22

Senator Gbenga Ashafa’s Bogije polling unit in Ibeju Lekki

President APC 385, PDP 250, Senate APC 406, PDP 236 and Rep APC 386.

The APC candidate has also won the election in the two polling units 021 and 022 inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The total votes scored in the two units showed that APC got 597 votes while PDP garnered 567 votes.

Sorting and counting for the presidential election in the two units are still ongoing.

March 29, 2015
Bode George needs social rehabilitation, says Obanikoro

Immediate past Minister of State for Defence, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro, yesterday fired back at the former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, asking him to seek rehabilitation for post-traumatic stress arising from his stint in jail.

The former minister was responding to George’s broadside that he (Obanikoro) was a lunatic for accusing him (George) of manipulating the recent governorship primaries of the PDP in Lagos.

Mr. Jimi Agbaje, favoured by George, was declared winner of the primaries.

Obanikoro said, “Indeed, there is nothing unexpected about the recent tantrums by Chief Bode George targeted at me in spite of the ignoble role he played in the fraudulent outcome of the Lagos PDP gubernatorial primaries. For whatever it is worth, it is to Chief Bode George’s credit that his family name is tainted and now constitutes a generational blemish as Nigeria’s leading metaphor for gross moral deficit, lack of integrity and public dishonour,” This is in apparent reference to the imprisonment of George by a Lagos State High Court for corruption during his tenure as Chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). However, the Supreme Court has since quashed the sentence and declared him blameless.

Continuing his tirade Obanikoro said: “As Chief Bode George embarks on his feeble attempts at painting a picture of me that exists only in his perverted imagination, let someone remind him that the post-traumatic stress disorder that comes with a time in jail would take more than just an unholy alliance with a pharmacist to heal.

” It is instructive to state here that not only that I am properly raised in the best of Yoruba tradition, I owe a large part of my successful public service career to a childhood and education built on godly principles and sound moral values.

“In all my life and public service career, I have never been accused, arrested or convicted for fraud whether at home in Nigeria or abroad and I have been happily and responsibly married for 34 years.

George had, in his own statement, dismissed Obanikoro’s allegation that he manipulated the PDP primaries as alarmist provocations and described the former minister as “a desperate and obsessed man who is apparently incapable of absorbing the reality of his defeat by a well-bred and better man.”

He added: “For Obanikoro to claim in sheer ludicrousness that I, even remotely, identify with any intimations of violence is utter lunacy and blind, vindictive madness. Surely, Obanikoro is possessed and obsessed. He needs immediate psychiatric treatment. He is a desperate sinking man, grasping and thrashing in self inflicted chasm.

“What is the pedigree of this young man who has abandoned the typical African deference to elders? We know who sprung from violence and banditry. We know whose antecedents reek in noisome, vagrant, untidy ruffianism.

“Politics is not a do or die affair. No civilised person with impeccable pedigree will seek a tacky refuge in destruction and ruin simply because he has lost in a free and fair contest. Obanikoro should go quietly into that good night if he means well for Lagos.

“Enough of his desperate tantrums and lunacy. Lagos has moved on, far beyond the primitive wretchedness of little, ill-bred hooligans.”

December 21, 2014
How George, Agbaje rigged Lagos primary – Obanikoro

A former Minister of State for Defence, Musiliu Obanikoro, has accused a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Chief Olabode George and the winner of the party’s governorship primary, Jimi Agbaje of manipulating the election to favour the latter.

Obanikoro, in an affidavit he filed with a suit he initiated against the election, alleged that George and Agabje deliberately disrupted proceedings at the election venue, using thugs and state security officers to achieve their aim.

The defeated governorship aspirant in the suit marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/994/2014 is seeking among others, the nullification of election outcome on the ground that the exercise violated the party’s electoral guidelines in many areas, including the production of result in excess of accredited voters.

Defendants in the suit are the PDP and the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Sometime at about 11am, one Chief Bode George and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, a co-contestant arrived the venue of the election with armed thugs, who kept a menacing vigil at the entrance of the election venue.

“Sometime at about 1pm, the said Chief Bode Goerge, a chieftain of the 1st defendant returned to the venue of the election with a team of armed mobile policemen and armed officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA( where his wife is the Chairman), making the atmosphere at the venue to become exceedingly charged.

“The thugs earlier brought by Chief Bde George and Mr. Jimi Agbaje, at this point, began to disrupt the venue by throwing bottles, stones and firing gun shots in the direction of the delegates loyal to me and preventing other delegates loyal to me from entering the venue.

“The gun shots attracted another detachment of policemen, who engaged the thugs in a gun and tear gas battle, during which many of the delegates loyal to me ran for dear lives to avoid being caught in the crossfire between the police and the armed thugs.

“Many of my delegates, who ran for their dear lives in the ensuing violence and gun battle never returned and were consequently disenfranchised as it took the police several hours to restore some semblance of normalcy.

“The police recovered five guns and rounds of ammunitions and live cartridges from the thugs brought by Chief Bode George and Mr. Jimi Agbaje. Thereafter, the delegates brought by Chief Bode George and Mr. Jimi Agbaje started arriving the venue of the election and accreditation which ought to have started since 8am started at about 6.30pm.”

December 17, 2014
Serious allegations

Obanikoro’s allegations that Bode George is turning SURE-P cadets into an illicit force, for election duties in 2015, should be probed

Chief Bode George, chieftain of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, is in the news again. He is in the news at the moment over weighty allegations that funds for the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) were being misapplied; and that the SURE-P task force being trained in Lagos was actually meant to terrorise inhabitants and also destabilise the coming 2015 general elections in Lagos State.

Musiliu Obanikoro, former Minister of State for Defence and leading PDP member, in exasperation after he lost the primaries, went on air to level these grievous allegations against George.

A breakdown of the allegations, as reported and beamed live on Television Continental (TVC), a satellite television station, shows the following: that Bode George is purportedly sponsoring and training thugs illegally for election purposes through the SURE-P Task Force at toll gate along Magodo expressway area; that members of the Task Force bear arms and ammunition allegedly in preparation for election violence; and that the SURE-P boys allegedly provide round-the-clock security for George’s Ikoyi residence. But he is not known to occupy any top public office at present to warrant such protection, by people paid from the public till.

In fury, Obanikoro also stated that the only time the PDP in the state knew peace was when George was in jail.

We believe that the outburst of Obanikoro should not be shoved aside, as coming from someone who lost in the just concluded PDP governorship primaries. As a former ambassador, Minister of State for Defence and frontline member of the PDP in the state, he knows what he was saying about what goes on in the innermost circle of the party and, most especially, on issues he raised.

To us, indeed, he spoke as someone who should know. In our view, such severe allegations should not be treated with kid’s gloves; or dismissed as the ranting of an irritant party man. Rather, they should be treated with official promptness because they bear criminal imputations that could be injurious to Lagos and the entire electoral process if not properly addressed now.

We could not fathom why SURE-P, designed to bring succour to the long suffering people of Lagos and Nigerian in general under President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, could be turned, for selfish reasons, to an avenue for creating a possible destabilisation force with obviously the sole aim of threatening free and fair elections in Lagos State come February, 2015.

Hitherto, there have been reports of massive recruitment of able-bodied people into the SURE-P cadre and they were reportedly seen along the toll gate express-road, being given military drilling. That supports the allegation that they might be deployed to cause disquiet in the polity.

On several occasions in recent past, the task force cadets had reportedly engaged the officials of Lagos State Traffic Management Agency (LASTMA) in avoidable battles over who controls highways in the Lagos metropolis. The squabbles emanating from this have led to the unleashing of serious injuries on some LASTMA officials by SURE-P cadets that are reported to be routinely armed.

Yet, they have proved to be grossly inefficient in providing effective traffic management on major roads that they have illegally taken over. In retrospect, we can authoritatively state that during the era of Adeseye Ogunlewe as Minister of Works under the Obasanjo presidency, he came up with a gang called FERMA task force through which they terrorised Lagosians on the road. Just as that ill conceived gang did not last long, we are not under any illusion, like its promoters, that this SURE-P task force will disappear like its predecessor did.

Still, we demand the intervention of the presidency in addressing the Obanikoro allegations against George. It is sad to note that the SURE-P funds meant to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal have been allegedly hijacked by Bode George and his faction of the party.

This amounts to nothing but an abuse of SURE-P funds and, in essence, which should not be allowed to continue. But for the crisis that was an aftermath of the PDP governorship primaries, the public will still be in the dark.

We wonder: how can money, specifically meant to be shared for the good of all Lagosians, now be turned into the exclusive preserve of a few in the state branch of PDP hell bent in creating mayhem come 2015?

President Jonathan must ensure, as a matter of urgent duty, that nothing is done or allowed to be done to compromise the coming elections in Lagos or anywhere in Nigeria.

December 14, 2014