Ayo Fayose, former governor of Ekiti state says former President Olusegun Obasanjo masterminded the incarceration of Chief Olabode George, a former deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over a tussle for the party’s national chairmanship position.
According to Daily Independent, Fayose said it was wrong for George to accuse him of sabotaging his efforts to become the national chairman of PDP.
He said as Ekiti state governor, he was in Ota, Ogun State, when Obasanjo who wanted to become the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) said he would cause trouble for George so that he won’t have time to contest for the PDP national chairmanship position.
He said, “Let me say that Chief Bode George is our leader; I don’t want to fight him. Sincerely, I don’t want to fight him. He imagined that I was the one that didn’t allow him to become PDP national chairman; that is his grouse. I want to say to him, if God has destined him to be national chairman, he would have been. Fayose is not God that can stop anybody.
“He keeps saying I stopped him and I keep saying to him too that when I wanted to become governor in 2014, he did not support me. He worked against me. He worked with the likes of Jumoke Akinjide to work against me. He worked with Dayo Adeyeye at a time. But let us be very honest, politics is all about interests. So, I don’t want to blame him.
“He said he gave me N250, 000. I can’t remember him doing that but even if he has given me money, I have given a lot of people contesting elections money. I have done favours for Chief Bode George when I was sitting governor. Do I come to the streets and start saying I bought Chief Bode George this and that. That is not equally matured. Any politician saying I give this person money is a man of little mind. I don’t want to say oga is a little mind but I don’t expect oga to be saying I gave Fayose N250,000. What is N250,000?
“When he was in prison, I went to see him. He would recall that when Baba (Olusegun Obasanjo) said he would go to prison, I was the one who went to him to come and tell him. Then I was a sitting governor. I left Ota and came to Lagos to meet him that Baba Obasanjo said he would send you to prison; that arrangement has been made for you to go to prison. He can’t deny that.
“I was in Obasanjo’s bedroom in Ota when he told me ‘that Bode, he will pay for it dearly. He will end up in prison. He wants to be national chairman, let’s see how he will do it’. When I heard from Obasanjo, I ran to Chief Bode George to inform him that Baba Obasanjo had insisted that Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman should file your paper quickly, saying ‘what Bode will be facing, he will not have time for national chairman’.
“It was in Transcorp Hilton that that crisis happened where Obasanjo and (Tony) Anenih had issues. It was because Obasanjo wants to be BoT chairman and Bode George wants to be national chairman.
“It was on the issue of this national chairman that sent Chief Bode George to prison. Chief Bode George wants to be national chairman; Obasanjo wants to be BoT chairman. The late Tony Anenih eventually became the BoT chairman. Obasanjo believed that Chief Bode George was going to disturb his bid, that was why Chief Bode George was charged to court.”
