Bode George, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and former deputy chairman of the Party, says he has no regret for refusing to support Abdul-Azeez Adediran, the party’s governorship candidate, in Lagos State.
Speaking on Monday in an interview with Channels Television, George said the endorsement of Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of the Labour Party (LP), was not on an individual level.
In the build-up to the March 18 governorship election in Lagos, the Omo Eko Pataki group led by George endorsed Rhodes-Vivour ahead of Adediran popularly known as Jandor.
However, George’s action as one who is regarded as a major stakeholder in Lagos PDP, was seen by many Party members as anti-party.
In response to the reason he chose the LP candidate, the PDP chieftain said the endorsement by the Omo Eko Pataki group was different from the affairs of the PDP, noting that Jandor, was operating on “another planet” during the elections.
“If you say I supported somebody from another party, it was not me but rather a group called Omo Eko Pataki. And as a bonafide Lagosian, we sat down and analysed all the candidates –from Sanwo-Olu to Jandor,” he said.
“We weighed them. We found out that the best candidate just left the party out of anger. That is the problem that went all over the whole place. There was a new movement going around this country and we said who has the capacity, educational and moral background to handle the state.
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“As a PDP member, the fellow who got the ticket was on another planet behaving in his own way. What I did as Omo Eko Pataki is different from PDP.”
According to George, he had “no regret whatsoever”concerning the decision.
In relation to PDP’s crisis, George urged aggrieved members to “calm down” and engage in a “thorough introspection” of the Party’s problems.
“As a leader, father, and life board of trustee member of the party, there are leaders who got very angry about the procedure of the party,” he said.
“We defiled the laws of the party and removed some foundations of the party. What else do you expect? I remembered that I said a divided house will be a defeated house. I said that before the election.
“If we got a bloody nose and we sat back and did not do a thorough introspection or post-Morten analysis and learn from the mistakes, we are bound to repeat the mistakes of the past.
“Mistakes have been made. If you don’t correct them, you are bound to have many more in the future. I want to plead with everybody to calm down. All these fireworks should stop.”
