‘They were looking for aspirants with ATM’ – PDP accused of releasing party tickets to rich People

Former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bode George, has criticised the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party for failing to secure victory in the 2023 presidential elections.

George made the statement while speaking to journalists in Lagos.

He faulted the NWC for deviating from the established procedures designed by the PDP’s founding fathers for conducting primary elections and congresses, stating that it is important to return to these established processes to improve the party’s chances in future elections.

“Having worked at the national secretariat for 10 years, the problem that resurfaces in every electoral period is very simple. It started during the period of Uche Secondus, and I wouldn’t like to undress my party publicly. It is a monumental crisis, but very simple to handle.

“The way the founding fathers designed the handling of primaries and congresses, they altered it; I won’t say more than that,” Bode George stated.

“But that is the major issue plaguing the party. You know our party is not owned by an individual, but some people play and pretend as if they are working for the party. Those are the issues that we will discuss when we get back in the inner chambers of our party and we must change them. That was the methodology used when I was there and there was no crisis.

“A typical example is the primaries in Lagos either governorship; they will send people who don’t live here and who have no business here to come and conduct primaries. How can somebody from outside know your house more than you and by the time they land rather than allowing people to vote, they will be looking for the aspirants and they become their Automated Teller Machine, ATM.

“And once they finish, they will run back to the national organising department to affirm the person they supported. But I won’t expand more than that, and that is the major crisis which you see because, if you go to the bottom and do your primaries at the wards and local government levels and create division at that level, how can you fight the outsiders.”

George called for a reconciliation committee to address these issues and pave the way forward for the PDP. He stressed the importance of conducting a thorough review of the party’s experiences in each state during the 2023 elections.

“There should be no short approach; sweeping everything under the carpet is a foolish way to do it. We must set up a committee that will go around the country, move state by state, and make inquiries about their experiences, what happened to finances, and the political aspect. How were the primaries conducted in each state? Who did what?”