The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-West has berated the Action
Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and its agents for their incessant media attacks on
former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Chief Bode George over his
conviction, saying; “the same way Bode George was convicted was also the
way the ACN National Chairman, Chief Bisi Akande was jailed for fraud by the
General Mohammadu Buhari Military Regime in 1984. How then, can pot continue to
call kettle black?”
The party, which described criticisms of Bode George’s appointment as member of
a panel to reorganise its Board of Trustees (BOT) as hypocritical, said;
“The PDP has the rights to give responsibilities to any of its members and
imprisonment of anyone should be reformatory and not a stigma with which
someone’s existence must be terminated.”
Zonal Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Hon. Kayode Babade said in a statement
issued today that rather than turning Chief Bode George’s conviction into an
anthem that they sing everyday, the ACN should tell Nigerians the propriety of
having Chief Bisi Akande, who was jailed for fraud in 1984 as its National
Chairman and Femi Gbajamiala, who was convicted for professional misconduct by
the Supreme Court of Georgia as the House of Representatives Minority
Leader.”
“The statement read; “We have followed with keen interest the
continuous media attack on the person of our party’s former Deputy National
Chairman, Chief Bode George by the ACN and its cohorts, the latest being the
criticisms of Bode George’s appointment as a member of a panel to reorganise
the PDP Board of Trustees.
“While we do not want to bother ourselves with the propriety or otherwise
of Chief Bode George’s conviction not stealing a dime of public fund but for
flouting procedure for award of contracts, we make bold to say that the ACN as
a party does not have the required moral standing to chastise Bode George or
any other person for that matter because its own National Chairman was equally
jailed for stealing funds belonging to the old Oyo State.
“Interestingly, Bisi Akande was only released from jail and not pardoned
by the Ibrahim Babangida government, and Buhari, whose government jailed him
(Akande) is now his political mentor and rallying figure for their much touted
merger party.
“It also a fact that it was late Chief Sunday Afolabi who prevailed on the
Osun State PDP not to go to court to raise the issue of Akande’s conviction vis
his qualification to contest election as a governor in 1999.
“Apart from Akande, was the ACN Leader in the House of Representatives,
Femi Gbajabiamila not also convicted in faraway United States of America for
stealing his client’s money?
“If these characters in the ACN have any sense of shame, they ought to
know that despite his conviction, Bode George had the right to belong to, and
participate in the activities of a political party the same way Bisi Akande is
the National Chairman of the ACN despite being an ex-convict.
“Can conviction stop somebody from belonging to a group or a trade union? And
if he belongs to a group, can’t he take part in the activities of the group?
“Therefore, it is our challenge to the ACN hypocrites that they should
clean their stinking house and leave Chief Bode George alone to live his life
and exercise his constitutional rights.”
