Chief Olabode George, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees, has declined his appointment to the newly inaugurated Disciplinary Committee, asserting that such committees are not what the party needs at this time to achieve member reconciliation.
PDP National Working Committee (NWC) led by acting National Chairman Umar Damagum, inaugurated both Reconciliation and Disciplinary Committees in an effort to address the ongoing internal crisis.
However, during an appearance on Arise TV Morning Show on Friday, George stated that he could not serve on the committee chaired by Chief Tom Ikimi.
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He attributed the current crisis to the emergence of Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate in 2023 and advised the party’s leaders to first resolve existing disputes before forming such committees.
George noted that the PDP is currently divided into three factions and expressed concerns that the Chairman and Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee belong to one of these factions.
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He has already communicated his stance to acting Chairman Umar Damagum and National Organizing Secretary Umar Bature.
He said, “I can’t serve under him (Ikimi), because when did he join the party? We know within ourselves the various groupings that are dividing the party, that’s what the party should sit down first and resolve.
“I know Tom very well, he met me in this party. The founding fathers handed over to us. So the culture of the party, the do’s and don’ts are with us. So you don’t make me be a member under somebody that I know in terms of hierarchy of the party, and say I should go and serve under him.
“I made that observation to them. I will not serve under Ikimi. I’m being very frank. How much information or depth does he have concerning our party? You don’t do things like that. It’s an observation and I’ve told the Chairman. Just setting up a committee, where will it lead you?
Speaking further on why he rejected the membership of the committee, he said, “The chairman of that committee is from one group, and the secretary of the committee is from the same group, so am I just to go there and sit and look like some undecided animal? We need to do a fundamental review of what went wrong during the last elections, come up with solutions, reunite everybody because a divided house will always remain a defeated house.”
