A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos state, Barrister Taofik Gani, has called on the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general elections, Atiku Abubakar to call his aides to order and guide them against their now intolerable agent provocateur role which has continued to embarrass the Party in the eyes of the electorates.
He also called on Atiku to dissociate himself from press statement issued by his aides denigrating party elders.
Gani’s call is coming on the heels of a reaction attributed to Mr Paul Ibe, an aide of Atiku who accused Chief Bode George of tribalism and unfit to be a member of the military.
Chief Bode George had reiterated his stance that the emergence of Atiku from the North as presidential candidate after eight years of Northern presidency was against the letters & spirits of the PDP constitution relating to Offices & Power rotation.
According to Gani, “Paul Ibe’s reaction is devoid of any Logic or research as Chief Bode George, a Yoruba, stands out as the most vocal elder of the Party against the APC since Buhari and now Tinubu, a Yoruba. Indeed Chief Bode George symbolises fearlessness and is always ready to speak the truth to power”.
“Paul Ibe has just confirmed that he is the worst of the 90% of Atiku aides whose incompetence, disillusionment, intellectual laziness and farness from public opinion repeatedly caused Atiku his ambition.
The attempt by Paul Ibe to come out of dormancy is misdirected and dead on arrival. Atiku should dissociate from the press statement and in fact Sack Paul Ibe. Obviously Paul Ibe is around Atiku for pecuniary gain and thus would continue to act as an agent provocateur against the interest of Atiku.
George has never described Atiku as a rookie to be president, but that Atiku’s emergence was against the PDP Democracy and National expectation. Indeed the Atiku emergence eventually alienated many sitting Governors, Ex Governors, Senators, leaders including Peter Obi and many others, hence the birth of LP as a 3rd force which eventually compromised the expected PDP Votes.
“Thus, accusing George of tribalism is laughable and exposes Paul Ibe as a gas lighter bereft of vital information. For sake of clarity, the best friend of Chief Bode George is from the North; Chief Bode George also committed all he had as DG to successfully return Late Yar Adua, a northerner as president.
“If Atiku does not immediately dissociate from the diseased statement by Paul Ibe; caution his aides against a similar reaction and himself humbly admitting the emergence as a political mistake, then the 2023 emergence will remain a talking point which may eventually kill the Party, PDP”
