A former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, yesterday hit at the former chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande and some party chieftains in the South-West, over their visit to President Muhammadu Buhari last week.
George said the visit was laced with a hidden agenda, adding that it was ostensibly to soften the ground for the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
Also in the visit were former governor of Ogun State, Chief Segun Osoba and Prince Tajudeen Olusi, chairman of the Governor’s Advisory Council (GAC), the highest decision-making body in the Lagos APC.
In a statement in Lagos on Saturday, the PDP leader said the visit to the seat of power “is needless, veiled in some poorly hidden agenda that is woven in apparently self-serving ulterior personalised desperation.’’
According to him, the absence of Tinubu was a confirmation that the discussion at the meeting centred around him and his perceived presidential ambition in 2023.
George, however, advised Chief Akande to stop “engaging in fruitless pleading sessions.’’
He said, “The very absence of Bola Tinubu from the jamboree screams to high heavens that the meeting itself was a covert placatory softening of the ground for him. I am pretty certain that Tinubu occupied the centrality of the discussion.
It is easy to discern that the visit was stripped of any patriotic progression, lacking in balanced national leadership, voided of a spirit of sacrifice and developmental vision.
President Muhammadu Buhari should not fall for those who would eclipse the main issue wracking Lagos state in a needless, solicitous self-immersed scheming in partisan engagement.’’
But a chieftain of the APC in the state, Cardinal James Odumbaku, said the visit to the Villa was not the business of Bode George, adding that he should steer clear of the affairs of the party.
“Chief Akande is a member of the APC while George is of the PDP, so they don’t have any relationship unless he wants to place another visit. They can go there to discuss anything they want, so far it is for the peace of Nigeria,’’ he said.
