A member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has declined his appointment to the newly inaugurated Disciplinary Committee.
George cited the party’s polarization and the composition of the committee as reasons for his rejection.
The National Working Committee of the PDP, led by acting Chairman Umar Damagum, had inaugurated the Disciplinary and Reconciliation Committees to address the party’s internal crisis.
However, speaking on Arise TV’s Morning Show on Friday, George expressed his reservations about serving under Committee Chairman Chief Tom Ikimi.
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, 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.”
