Lagos PDP crisis deepens as Bode George, Salvador part ways

The crisis rocking the Lagos State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got worse yesterday, as the state chairman, Mr. Moshood El-Salvador and the former national deputy chairman, Chief Olabode George, openly castigated each other at separate press conferences.

Salvador has formerly dumped the party for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), saying he could no longer stay in the same fold with George, whom he accused of frustrating all efforts to grow the party ahead of the 2019 elections.

But, in a swift move, George called on the Inspector General of Police to reopen the alleged case of murder against the former state chairman over the death of a chieftain of the party, Prince Adeniyi Aborishade.

Aborisade, who was chairman of the party in Apapa, was killed on July 21 at Igbokusu in Lekki, during a meeting convened the instance of Salvador.

The death led to Salvador’s arrest until he was discharged on the advice of Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution.

Announcing his defection to APC at his Surulere residence alongside supporters, Salvador accused George of being the cog in the wheel of progress of Lagos PDP.

Yet, George, at a meeting of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) members in his Ikoyi office, called on the IGP Idris and the Attorney General of the Federation to probe the circumstances that led to the murder of Aborishade and bring the culprits and their sponsors to book.

At the conference titled: ‘Who Killed My Husband?

Aborishade’s wife cries out’ George said Nigeria remains a society of law and order, stressing that protecting lives of individuals must be sacrosanct else life would be short and brutish like Hobessian State of anarchy.

He said: “The family of Aborishade has justifiably internationalised this issue. The United Nations Human Rights Commission is being notified.

The International Criminal Court at The Hague is equally being addressed to help keep a proper watch on the proceedings.”

While insisting that Salvador’s defection was not unexpected to the elders of the party, George said: “He (Salvador should be asked whom he was working for while he claimed to be in PDP?”

Nonetheless, Salvador, who disclosed that he would officially decamp to APC on Monday with 50,000 members, denied knowing anything about how Aborishade was murdered, maintaining that he had to be rescued from the scene by men of the Civil Defence and lost lost one of his pair of his shoes.

“How can they now be pointing fingers at me that I knew about how Aborishade died,” he asked.