PDP Crisis: Bode George Rejects Membership of Disciplinary Committee, Gives Reason

• Chief Olabode George declines to serve on the PDP’s Disciplinary Committee, criticizing it as an ineffective response to internal party crises
• George attributes the PDP’s current divisions to Atiku Abubakar’s candidacy, urging leaders to prioritize resolving conflicts over forming committees

Chief Olabode George, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), has declined to serve on the party’s newly inaugurated Disciplinary Committee. George, appointed to the committee by the party’s leadership, stated that forming such committees was not the right approach to resolving the ongoing crisis within the party.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP, led by acting National Chairman Umar Damagum, recently established both a reconciliation and a disciplinary committee to address the internal conflicts affecting the party. However, during an appearance on Arise TV’s Morning Show, George made it clear that he could not serve under the chairmanship of Chief Tom Ikimi, who heads the Disciplinary Committee.

George attributed the current crisis in the PDP to Atiku Abubakar’s emergence as the party’s Presidential Candidate in 2023. He advised the party’s leaders to focus on resolving the internal divisions before creating committees. He expressed concern that the PDP is now split into three factions, with the Chairman and Secretary of the Disciplinary Committee belonging to one of these factions.

George also expressed dissatisfaction with serving under Ikimi, questioning his depth of knowledge and experience within the PDP. He stated, “I can’t serve under him (Ikimi), because when did he join the party? We know within ourselves the various groupings that are dividing the party, that’s what the party should sit down first and resolve.”

He further argued that the committee’s leadership is biased, as the Chairman and Secretary belong to the same faction, leading him to reject his role on the committee. George called for a thorough review of what went wrong during the last elections and stressed the importance of reuniting the party, warning that “a divided house will always remain a defeated house.”