Fayose says it was Obasanjo who sent Bode George to prison

Former Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose has said Bode George’s journey to jail was planned by former President, Olusegun Obasanjo in his Ota farm.

In October 2009, Bode George was found guilty and sentenced to jail for 30 months. The sentence was handed out by Justice Joseph Olubunmi Oyewole. The judge found the defendants guilty on 47 out of the 68 counts.

He was later acquitted after serving his two years jail term by the Supreme Court.

But Fayose, in an interview at the weekend said George had always said he was the reason he did not become National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.

He said if God had destined George to become PDP chairman, nothing could have stopped it.

“He keeps saying I stopped him and I keep saying to him too that when I wanted to become governor in 2014, he did not support me. He worked against me. He worked with the likes of Jumoke Akindele to work against me. He worked with Dayo Adeyeye at a time. But let us be very honest, politics is all about interests. So, I don’t want to blame him,” he told Independent on Sunday.

Fayose said when George was in prison, he went to see him, saying he would recall that when Baba (Olusegun Obasanjo) said he would go to prison, he was the one who went to tell him.

“Then I was a sitting governor. I left Ota and came to Lagos to meet him that Baba Obasanjo said he will send you to prison; that arrangement has been made for you to go to prison. He can’t deny that.

“I was in Obasanjo’s bedroom in Ota when he told me ‘that Bode, he will pay for it dearly. He will end up in prison. He wants to be national chairman, let’s see how he will do it’. When I heard from Obasanjo, I ran to Chief Bode George to inform him that Baba Obasanjo had insisted that Nuhu Ribadu, the then EFCC chairman should file your paper quickly, saying ‘what Bode will be facing, he will not have time for national chairman,’” he narrated.

Fayose said it was in Transcorp Hilton that that crisis happened where Obasanjo and Anenih had issues and that it was because Obasanjo wante to be Board of Trustee (BoT) chairman of the PDP and George wanted to be National Chairman.

“It was on the issue of this national chairman that sent Chief Bode George to prison. Chief Bode George wants to be national chairman; Obasanjo wants to be BoT chairman. The late Tony Anenih eventually became the BoT chairman. Obasanjo believed that Chief Bode George was going to disturb his bid, that was why Chief Bode George was charged to court,” he said.

According to Fayose, “You will see that he was exonerated at the end of the day. Most of the people out there don’t have these facts. So, if God has not given you the national chairmanship position that time and he has not given you this time, just know that it is not the will of God for you.”