A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain, Bode George, has dismissed allegations by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, that his Maitama residence in Abuja was funded with Rivers State money.
He described the claim as the outburst of a man who needs urgent psychiatric attention.
Wike had, during a media chat in Abuja on Tuesday, described George as the “father of corruption” and challenged him to explain the source of funds used to acquire the property.
Reacting on TVC News on Wednesday night, George denied the allegation and threatened to sue Wike.
He said he did not build the house but bought it from its original owner, who he said was a retired civil servant.
“How would he have? What has he got to do with the price of milk? It’s my house. The agent got it for me.
“And the owner of the house was also a civil servant, retired. So what has he got to do with Rivers State? Am I from Rivers State? Is Rivers State a bank?” George said.
The PDP Board of Trustees member said it was beneath him to respond to Wike, whom he said was about the same age as his first child.
He, however, went ahead to fault the minister’s conduct, describing him as immature and unfit to hold office without proper guidance.
“I said to myself that that young man needs to be immediately taken to the psychiatric hospital. My house in Abuja was bought with funds from Rivers? How?
“I wasn’t the only one he was abusing. First of all, it’s an infra dig for me to respond to a child who is just about the same age as my first child,” George said.
He alleged that Wike’s estrangement from his own father should disqualify him from lecturing others on corruption.
“In Africa, if your biological father disowns you publicly, you know what that means. And you want me to respond to him? I’m so sorry, because I have met his family,
“I have met his wife, and he’s talking absolute rubbish. I didn’t even build the house. The house was built, I bought it,” he said.
George added that he would pursue legal action against the minister and called for his removal from public office.
“I’m going to sue him to court for all the shenanigans, the thoughtlessness. And I’m sure he was high on something. It’s high time this guy in the villa should move away from him. He’s unadvised. You don’t need him,” he said.
Asked whether he could still work with Wike if the survival of the PDP demanded it, George said the minister had gone past redemption.
“How? He got to a point where he sunk himself,” he said.
The exchange is the latest in a running feud between the two PDP chieftains over the party’s leadership crisis.
Wike had accused George of repeatedly branding the judiciary corrupt whenever court judgments went against him, alleging the pattern only applied whenever he lost a case.
George had recently petitioned the Nactional Judicial Council over a Federal High Court judgment of July 17 that dismissed a suit filed by the Adolphus Wabara-led faction of the PDP Board of Trustees and awarded N140m costs against the plaintiffs.
Wike also questioned George’s standing as a founding father of the PDP, arguing that the party had not won any significant election in Lagos since 1999 under his watch.
Wike said, “I want to tell you something about… what’s this man from Lagos? Bode George. You know, I have said people should be careful. When they talk about corruption, ask him: the house he is living in, Maitama, is it not Rivers State government money? That is why I said you do not sit in one place and start throwing, oh judiciary is this. Something that is not correct… each time you lose a case, you call the judiciary. Corruption. Corruption. Meanwhile, people like you are the fathers of corruption. People like you,” he said.
Wike, faulting Bode George’s repeated corruption remarks, said, “Each time you talk about a matter going to court, the judiciary is corrupt. Until when you win, that’s only when the judiciary is not corrupt. But the moment you lose, judiciary is corrupt.”
Asked to clarify on the allegation of Bode George owning a property funded by the Rivers State Government, Wike said, “I have told you; I have made a statement. Let him come and prove it. I have said it, he has heard it. I said so.”
The minister refuted claims of corruption and conflicting judgements on the PDP case, noting that “the fact that there are conflicting judgments does not mean that they collected money.”
“Sometimes, we don’t even read all we have seen on a headline, and then we don’t go back to sit down, read the judgment, or give it to our lawyers, analyse it and come back. If you are in violation of your constitution, if you are in violation of the Electoral Act, if you are in violation of the extant laws of the country, we cannot shut our eyes and say it is in the hands of the party,” he added.
