Lagos PDP scribe urges Atiku to caution aides against destroying party

Former Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State, Taofik Gani, yesterday, urged the party’s presidential candidate in the last election, Atiku Abubakar, to call his aides to order and guide them against their intolerable agent provocateur.

He said that the role currently being demonstrated by Atiku’s aides had continued to embarrass the party in the eyes of the electorate.

Gani, in a statement, urged the former Vice President to immediately dissociate himself from a statement attributed to one of his aides, Paul Ibe, who accused Bode George of tribalism and unfit to be a member of the military.

George had reiterated his stance that the emergence of Atiku from the North as presidential candidate of PDP in the last general election, after eight years of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also from the North, was against the letters and spirits of the PDP’s constitution relating to offices and power rotation.

Gani said: “Paul Ibe’s reaction was devoid of any logic or research as Bode George, a Yoruba man, stands out as the most vocal elder of the PDP against the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) since Buhari and now President Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba man. Indeed, Bode George symbolises fearlessness and he is always ready for his ambition.

“The attempt by Paul Ibe to come out of dormancy is misdirected and dead on arrival. Atiku should dissociate from the 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 the former Vice President.”
Gani, therefore, said that George had never described Atiku as a rookie to be president, but that Atiku’s emergence as PDP’s presidential candidate was against the party’s democracy and national expectation.

“Indeed, Atiku’s emergence eventually alienated many sitting governors, former governors, senators, leaders, including Peter Obi and many others, hence the birth of the Labour Party (LP) as a third force, which eventually compromised the expected PDP’s votes.

“Thus, accusing George of tribalism is laughable and exposes Ibe.

“If Atiku does not immediately dissociate from Ibe and also 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 that may eventually kill the party, PDP,” he further said.