A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Bode George, has accused former Senate President, David Mark, who is now the Interim National Chairman of the African Democratic Congress, of contributing to the internal crisis currently rocking the PDP.
Speaking in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, George alleged that Mark was responsible for organising the controversial national convention, which according to him, laid the foundation for the party’s crisis.
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mark, former Jigawa and Sokoto state governors, Sule Lamido and Aminu Tambuwal respectively, among others at a meeting in Abuja last week, urged PDP members to join the ADC to rescue the nation in the next 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.
But reacting to Mark’s call, George, a former Chairman of 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 the other 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.”
The PDP chieftain described Atiku, Mark and others as ingrates and a disappointment to the memories of the founding fathers of 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 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?”
However, a former National Secretary of PDP, Ibrahim Tsauri, has thrown weight behind the call for the PDP members to join the ADC-led coalition against President Bola Tinubu in 2027.
Speaking in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, Tsauri, who served in the Uche Secondus-led national executive, said the PDP leaders who today constitute the soul of the ADC must have seen good reason to abandon the once dominant political party.
He said, “Staying in or joining a political party is purely partisan, it is not divine. Nobody is compelled to stay in or join any political group, party, or association. The truth of the matter is that those people who are calling others to join the ADC are the face of the PDP. If they call on others to join them in building another political party, I believe they have their reasons.
“The way the PDP train is moving as of today is worrisome, and we believe that there are foreign interferences that are bent on making the party part of history. Yet, those who are optimistic feel that the party with 10 governors cannot be politically waved off for a party which has a local government councillor.
“Leaders calling on others to join ADC are people with proven political integrity, experience, respect, commitment, name, and value. No politician in Nigeria will question the political values and capacities of Atiku Abubakar, Sule Lamido, David Mark, Aminu Tambuwal, Babangida Aliyu and a host of others who are calling on others to join the ADC.”
He added that the call to join the ADC would not translate to the death of the PDP.
“The question of whether PDP will allow its members to leave does not arise because if we talk of PDP, these people have a percentage ratio of ownership. They are calling on PDP supporters to join the ADC as a platform that can be politically used to salvage and save Nigeria from the present situation, where no system is working. None of them ever said they wanted PDP dead.
“Do not forget that there are people in the PDP who came out openly fighting the party to a standstill and the leadership of the party did nothing to them.
“I see nothing wrong in calling those who have lost confidence in the PDP to join whichever political party they feel may save Nigeria from the grasp of the clueless APC government,” he added.
He noted that there was a chance the Atiku-led government would return to the PDP in the future.
“If the PDP holds a successful convention, it may call on Atiku, Mark and others to rethink and come back to the house they built. I believe their coming together under the PDP will give the APC an uncomfortable sleepless night than under ADC,” he added.
Also speaking in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, a member of the PDP National Working Committee, Capt Umar Bature (retd), said there was nothing wrong with the decision taken by Atiku and other PDP chieftains to join the ADC.
Bature, who currently serves as the PDP’s National Organising Secretary, said, “It is a free world.”
He, however, said the PDP was united.
