Bode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, has accused former Senate President David Mark, who is now Interim National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, of contributing to the PDP’s present internal conflict.
In an interview with PUNCH, George claimed that Mark was in charge of planning the contentious national convention, which he believes laid the groundwork for the party’s crisis.
At a meeting in Abuja last week, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mark, and former governors of Jigawa and Sokoto states, Sule Lamido and Aminu Tambuwal, among others, asked PDP members to join the ADC to save the country in the 2019 general election.
“The meeting encourages all well-meaning PDP members and other patriotic Nigerians to join the coalition. All coalition partners must be united on the issues of national unity, democracy, national security, national economy and the political will to stamp out corruption embedded in our institutions.
“The PDP, which is organic with the discipline, capacity, and history to lead and save Nigeria, is now a shadow of its old self. The heatwave unleashed by the APC-Federal Government through threats, blackmail and patronage has forced elected officers in government to abandon the PDP,” Mark said in a communique he read at the end of the meeting.
However, reacting to Mark’s call, George, a former chairman of the PDP Board of Trustees, chided the former senate president for abandoning the party in times of trouble, stressing that the PDP’s crisis was traceable to the retired army general.
He said, “I am deeply ashamed of that statement coming from David Mark, asking PDP members to join the ADC. It is extremely disgraceful. I am heartbroken. What is annoying is that these people have chosen to abandon their father’s house, where they were born. You left a house that produced and nurtured you just because there is one crisis or another in that house?
“This is not about Mark being arrogant; he is disgraceful and unworthy. We are talking about a retired Army general here, behaving like a rolling stone that gathers no moss. I was there when our party hierarchy decided he was going to be our nominee for the office of the Senate President. He was the Chairman of the convention that brought about the crisis in the PDP today because they manipulated the process established by the founding fathers.”
George described Atiku, Mark and others as ingrates and a disappointment to the memories of the founding fathers of the PDP.
He said, “These people are perpetually dancing on the graves of those babas who gave their lives and everything for the party. That comment he made that PDP is now a shadow of its former self is unacceptable to people like me.
“He (Mark) has no right to demonise the party. If a civilian said what he said, we can ignore it, but we (military personnel) were trained to have respect for processes and tradition. What will these people tell their children? Who created the shadow he is talking about? Who chaired the convention where everything was turned upside down?” he queried.
