A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has berated the former Senate President, David Mark, for abandoning the party in its time of crisis.
He accused Mark of organising the controversial national convention, which, according to him, laid the foundation for the party’s crisis.
Naijaonpoint reports that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Mark, former governors of Jigawa and Sokoto states, Sule Lamido and Aminu Tambuwal, respectively, among others, met in Abuja last week and 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”, Mark said in a communique he read at the end of the meeting.
However, in an interview with Punch, George described the former Senate President’s call as extremely disgraceful.
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 memory of the founding fathers of the 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?”