Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George has opened up on why he didn’t vote for the party’s 2023 presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
Explaining on Tuesday in an interview with Arise TV, George said the failure of the PDP to accommodate the people of his zone/region in the party’s top leadership position influenced his action.
According to him, there is no way he could tell his people to work for a party or candidate who didn’t recognize them or make them a priority.
The PDP chieftain made his mind known while speaking with Arise News.
Chief George added that prior to the election, efforts were made to call the attention of the PDP leadership to the anomaly but all such efforts were rebuffed.
He, therefore, submitted that he can’t be accused of any form of anti-party activities.
He said “I told them before that if they do not rearrange the top echelon of the management of the party, I will not vote for Atiku, because you know what happened? …Where is my zone? If you don’t consider my people as that important to be part of the top echelon of your management… How do I campaign for you?
“If you don’t respect my people in politics, what am I doing there?”
Speaking further, George said the 2023 PDP governorship candidate, Olajide Adeniran (Jandor) didn’t work with the party chieftains as he headed in a personal direction.
He said, “All the normal tenets, routes, expectations from the candidate of the party were not handled properly by this young man (Olajide Adediran). We spoke to him, he headed in the direction that he wanted.”
Chief George submitted that the suspension of some of the members of the PDP by the National Working Committee due to anti-party activities is unlawful as only the National Executive Committee was allowed to suspend fellow members of the NEC.
He said the party handled the issue wrongly, but mediation can be deployed to save the PDP from sinking totally.
“The best solution now to save this sinking ship is to mediate. It is after the post mortem analysis that we will now take action,” he submitted.