The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Chief Olabode George

  • PDP: Southwest zones chairmanship to Lagos, Ogun

    PDP: Southwest zones chairmanship to Lagos, Ogun

    The Southwest zonal caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday met at the Government House, Alagbaka, Akure, Ondo State in an attempt to present consensus candidates for positions zoned to the region by the Southern Caucus.

    On Thursday, last week, the Southern Caucus of the Party in Port Harcourt zoned the office of National Chairman, National Auditor and Deputy National Publicity Secretary to the zone.

    At the end of the Monday meeting, the caucus agreed to peg the National Chairmanship position between Lagos and Ogun State, Deputy National Publicity Secretary zoned to Oyo/Osun, National Treasurer zoned to Ondo/Ekiti.

    The caucus also set up a six-man committee to be Chaired by Alhaji Yekinni Adeoko to meet with the three aspirants from Lagos and Ogun with the view of coming up with a consensus candidate for the National Chairmanship position. The committee is expected to submit its report within forty-eight hours.

    The new arrangement has now streamlined the position of the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party to three individuals. The former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, who is the only aspirant from the State; Chief Olabode George and Jimi Agbaje, both from Lagos State.

    The meeting was attended by the host Governor, Olusegun Mimiko and his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayodele Fayose; former National Deputy Chairman and National Chairmanship Aspirant, Chief Bode George; Chairman, House of Representatives Committee for Rural Development, Hon. Ladi Adebutu, former Minister of Education and National Chairmanship Aspirant, Professor Tunde Adeniran,  amongst other dignitaries

  • PDP can win Lagos – Dokpesi

    PDP can win Lagos – Dokpesi

    Chief Raymond Dokpesi on Friday urged members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos state to unite and forge a common ground in a bid to win the state from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
    The mogul made this known when his campaign team berth in the commercial centre to canvass the support of delegates from the state ahead of the national convention billed for Port Harcourt, Rivers on August 17.
    “I appeal to you to bury your differences and unite so that PDP can win this state. Since 1999,  we have presented a divided house at every election and it is always our undoing at the polls. Your leaders can attest to the fact that I have made several efforts to unite the various groups in the past. If you support my aspiration and I emerge  as the chairman, we will unite the party and win the state,” he said.
    He told delegates that there is no rancour  between him and Chief Olabode George, who is also aspiring to the same position.
    Lagos state PDP chairman and a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Moshood Salvador, described Dokpesi as a pride of PDP, noting that he is a respected Nigerian who is capable of leading the party.
    “The PDP is proud to have High Chief Raymond Dokpesi in its rank. He is capable to lead the party but let me say we will also accompany our own, Chief Olabode George to Edo state to canvass for votes from delegates,” he said.
    The Edo state PDP organizing secretary, Hon. Henry Duke Tenebe appealed to the Lagos delegates to accord Dokpesi their support during the national convention, stressing that he is a bridge builder and a detribalised leader.
    Other speakers including the former chairman of PDP Kaduna, Chief Abubakar Gaiya Haruna and his Nasarawa counterpart, Chief Yunaha Iliya also called for support for Dokpesi, stressing that he is capable of reinventing and rebuilding the party.
  • Agbaje, Shekarau, Yuguda, George, lose at polling units

    Agbaje, Shekarau, Yuguda, George, lose at polling units

    Many heavyweights lost at their polling units in yesterday’s governorship and state assembly elections.

    Lagos State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate Jimi Agbaje failed to deliver his Apapa polling unit where his All Progressives Congress (APC) opponent Akinwunmi Ambode polled 124 votes to his 88 votes. He similarly failed to deliver in the presidential ballot.

    Former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP Chief Olabode George lost at his polling unit on Lagos Island. His party polled 87 to APC’s 137 in the governorship election.

    Borno State PDP governorship candidate Gambo Lawan lost to the APC candidate and Governor Kashim Shettima in Mobbar local government area in the northern part of the state.

    Shettima secured 118 votes to Lawan’s nine votes at Kareto Dispensary polling unit of Kareto ward.

    The election was held at Mohammed Goni College of Islamic Studies, one of the 20 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps in Maiduguri.

    Mobbar, which shares border with parts of Niger Republic, is one of the local government areas sacked by Boko Haram. Residents of the council voted at the IDP camp where they have been staying in the last five months.

    The PDP candidate scored zero to Shettima’s 196 at Shettimari polling unit in Lawan Bukar, Lamisula ward, where the governor voted.

    Minister of Education and former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau lost in his polling unit. The APC won 164 to PDP’s 78.

    Minister of National Planning Dr. Sulyman Abubakar also lost his polling unit 006 Ajikobi ward in Ilorin where his party the PDP won 56 votes to APC’s 291.

    Bauchi State Governor Isa Yuguda yesterday in Bauchi again failed to deliver his polling unit at Baba Side Primary School on Ran Road in Bauchi metropolis to the PDP.  In the presidential poll, Yuguda lost in the same polling unit.

    Former Edo State Governor Oserheimen Osunbor, who recently defected to the APC lost at his polling unit to the PDP House of Assembly election.

    The APC polled 24 votes against 139 votes garnered by the PDP at Unit six Ward six, Iruekpen in Esan West local government area where he voted.

    But the APC National Chairman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun secured victory for the APC at his Unit one Ward two polling unit in Oredo Local Government Area.it was the first time he was winning at the polling unit since 1999.

    The APC polled 54 votes to defeat the PDP which secured 48 votes at Unit one for the Oredo East Constituency seat in the Edo State House of Assembly.

    In unit two, the APC candidate, Chris Okaeben polled 49 votes to defeat the PDP candidates, Mr Uyi Ogbemudia who scored 43 votes.

    Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo again won his polling unit for the APC in the governorship and House of Assembly elections in Ogun State. At polling unit 22, Ward II in Abeokuta North Local Government area, , APC governorship candidate. Ibikunle Amosun polled 95 votes to defeat his PPD opponent Prince Gboyega Nasir Isiaka who scored four votes.

    The SDP candidate Senator Akin Odunsi got two votes.

    In the House Assembly results, the APC again got 85 votes, while the PDP and SDP got 8 and 14 votes.

  • Disquiet in Lagos PDP over Agbaje’s comment on George

    There is an uneasy calm in the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over a recent comment by its candidate in next month’s governorship elections, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, claiming that a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, is not his godfather.

    Agbaje allegedly made the comment during a question and answer session on the social media organised by a group of friends.

    The PDP governorship candidate was quoted as saying, “Bode George is not my godfather; he is just one of the leaders in PDP. He was not even aware when I joined the party.”

    Many of George’s associates in the party, it was learnt, allegedly took exception to this comment, with not a few of them describing Agbaje as an ingrate for publicly disowning a man who ensured his emergence as the PDP candidate despite being a new member of the party.

    At the PDP governorship primary held in December last year, Agbaje defeated about 10 aspirants, including Senator Musiliu Obanikoro in controversial circumstances, resulting in the declared results exceeding the number of accredited delegates. Agbaje’s victory was believed to have been made possible by George and another chieftain of the party, Senator Adeseye Ogunlewe.

    A source in the party said, “I think Agbaje is trying to be smart, but he won’t go far even if he wins the election. He is trying to distance himself from George and project the image of an independent-minded person, but he is going about it in a wrong way.”

    Perhaps in reaction to Agbaje’s comment, George at the weekend claimed he remains his guardian, noting that though Agbaje is an intelligent man, he must be guided on the right path, a role he said, he is currently playing for the PDP candidate.

  • Bode George needs social rehabilitation, says Obanikoro

    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.”