The PDP candidate for Lagos West Senatorial District in the 2023 elections, Chief Segun Adewale, has said a former Deputy National Chairman of the party, Chief Olabode George, is not his political benefactor.
Adewale, popularly known as Aeroland, made this assertion in a statement on Tuesday in Lagos.
He was reacting to a claim allegedly made by George, also a member of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT), that he (George)had been supporting his political aspirations and had helped his political career.
Adewale said he was dismayed by the claim and others concerning him, which he said George made on national TV .
Adewale, a former Lagos PDP Chairman, said: “Chief Olabode George’s claim of providing support for my political career is false .
“The claim lacks any substance or evidence. I have hardly been on the same divide with George in the party because of our ideological differences.
“Bode George was rather chasing shadows in the interview instead of addressing the damning allegations of anti-party activity.
“The diversionary tactic of false claims of helping my political aspirations will not yield any fruit.”he said
On George’s claim that he asked a candidate to step down for him in 2023, Adewale said that the candidate in question actively took part in the primary election against him.
“What a laughable claim!Nothing could be farther from the truth about Chief Bode George asking someone to step down for me,” he said.
He said that George never had the interest of the party at heart ,saying while was busy pursuing southern presidency in 2023, supporting candidates of other parties, he (Adewale) and the party governorship candidate, Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran (Jandor) aligned with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as the party’s presidential candidate.
He said: “Nothing could be farther from the truth about Chief Bode George asking someone to step down for me.
“We rarely agree on issues since I joined the party because of his anti-party tendencies.
“Even when I became the chairman of this party in 2017, he (Bode George) opposed me vehemently and protested against my chairmanship by mobilising his supporters to move to Labour Party”.
Adewale said George had never used his influence in any capacity to give him any party position.
He noted that he had to defer to George’s age and position in the party even when they had political differences.
Adewale alleged that George’s style of politics was not progressive.
The PDP chieftain also said that George’s claim of purchasing the nomination form for his senatorial aspiration was untrue.
He said: “I personally paid for my nomination form and I can authoritatively confirm that I paid money into the account of one of the Alimosho LG exco for the same purpose.
“I challenge Bode George to produce the transaction details of the payment for my senatorial nomination form”.
He said that the recurring anti-party activities within the state chapter of PDP pushed him to contest for governorship in Ekiti State in 2018.
Adewale said that he had worked tirelessly to build his political structure and spent his hard -earned money on it.
“I have contested elections, spent personal funds even when I was not on the ballot.
“Besides, what value will those that have never won their polling units since 1999, add to me?”.
Reacting to the allegation by some members of the Alimosho LGA PDP executive that he siphoned N59 million from funds meant for the local government during the last LG elections, Adewale described such claim as unfounded.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the crisis rocking Lagos PDP took another dimension when a forum of Aggrieved Lagos PDP Candidates in the 2023 elections instituted a suit against some party leaders, including George over alleged anti-party activities.
The group ,compromising 24 candidates who vied for various elective positions and led by Adewale, called on the national leadership of the party to sanction and expel all those who worked against the the party in the 2023 general elections in Lagos. (NAN)