A former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, has dismissed as illegal the purported dissolution of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) led by former Senate President Adolphus Wabara.
The move was announced on Friday by a faction of the party loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, and chaired by Abdulrahman Mohammed, who also declared Senator Mao Ohuabunwa as the new BoT Chairman.
George, however, faulted the action, insisting that Mohammed and his group lacked the constitutional authority to dissolve the party’s highest advisory body.
“Who made Mohammed Abdulrahman chairman of the PDP? The National Working Committee and the National Executive Committee approved Umar Damagum as the party’s acting chairman,” George said in an interview.
He described the faction’s move as a “desperate ploy to destabilise the PDP” and warned that allowing such illegality could undermine the country’s multi-party democracy.
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“These clowns want to make the All Progressives Congress the only party in Nigeria, which would be dangerous for a nation of over 200 million people,” he added.
The development deepens the crisis within the PDP, which has been split between factions loyal to Damagum and Wike. The feud intensified last week after the suspension of key National Working Committee members, including the National Secretary, Samuel Anyanwu, and the National Organising Secretary, Umar Bature, over alleged anti-party activities.
Mohammed, claiming to be the new acting national chairman, took control of the party’s Abuja secretariat with police support and announced the dissolution of the Wabara-led BoT, citing “loss of focus and moral authority.”
In its first meeting, the Ohuabunwa-led BoT endorsed the Federal High Court judgment that suspended the PDP’s planned national convention in Ibadan, stating that no organ of the party should act “in contempt of court or outside constitutional provisions.”
Meanwhile, George maintained that the convention would proceed as scheduled on 15–16 November, declaring: “We will all assemble in Ibadan for the event. Mohammed is a dreamer; the PDP’s structure cannot be taken down by anybody.”
