Conspiracy that sent me to jail

 

Three years ago, former Deputy National
Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),
and former Chairman, Nigerian Ports Authority
(NPA), Chief Olabode George was sent to jail for
alleged contract splitting. In an interview, in
Lagos, George says he was a victim of political
conspiracy.NDUBUISI ORJI brings the excerpts.
You have continued to maintain that your
imprisonment for alleged contract splitting
was politically motivated, what were the
circumstances that led to your conviction?

Looking back, it was a trial that strengthened
me. It was a trial that exposed me more to the
awesomeness of the Almighty God. God told us
in his word, the Holy Bible that he didn’t say we
will not have trouble, but if you trust Him, He
will be with you. I remember the first few days
when we were convicted, I was shell shocked.
The initial reaction was being cheated as a
soldier, and once someone does that to you
your adrenalin will just rise. Thank God I
couldn’t get an AK 47.
We went into the prison and settled down. My
wife brought my usual prayer book.
It was like a joke. It was like a huge joke. First
of all, the management team, they have some
disagreement among themselves. They were
fighting. They came to report to me what was
going on amongst them. And I tried to
intervene. But the friction was getting bigger and
stronger and I tried to report to the president.
Then Baba (Obasanjo) was the president. I said
sir, the management in NPA, they are having
problem among themselves, ‘I don’t know what
to do’. He said I should tell the minister. Thank
God that minister is still alive today. So I
reported to the minster that you need to
intervene in this management friction.
Eventually they set up a committee to look into
the NPA. The committee gave a report of what
they found, nothing was found with the board or
me. We were told that Baba said they should do
a forensic examination. And they did forensic
investigation.
If you would remember, Ribadu when he was
asked, said there was nothing. That if you have
any political problem with Bode George, you go
and solve it with him. If you have any
information you can come with it. It is systemic
failure, those were his words. Systemic failure.
Nobody ever invited me for any question until,
there was change in government, I was the
director general of the campaign that brought
Yar’Adua and Jonathan.
Before the struggle for position started, my mind
was on the party issue. By that time I have
spent about eight years in the management of
the party. There were manoeuvrings. The usual
petty fighting, innuendoes. That wasn’t my own.
I have retired in the military after twenty
something years.
I went abroad to have a break. I thought the
chairmanship of the party was going to be zoned
to the South-West. Somehow it was taken to the
South-East, which was an abnormalty. I went
away to cool off, by the time I returned, we had
a meeting at the party secretariat where they
said they were going to hold another national
convention. I told them, we have just finished
one convention, why another one. Particularly
they were going to look at the issue of the BoT.
The party felt that the power that was given to
the BoT chairman was an aberration. They
wanted to expunge that from our party
constitution.
They needed another constitution. I was
pleading that lets wait for another few months
for the party to settle down.
I remember that day as I left somebody told me
that something was brewing in EFCC about the
NPA and said I should go and find out. I went
to the Office of Minister of Justice and Attorney
General, that was Aaoondoka.
That night there was a swoop of people from
EFCC in my house. You would think it was a
war. Knocking, shouting. I came out and asked
what do you want. They said Mrs Farida wants
to see me. See me at this time? That was the
beginning of the convoluted conspiracy.
Looking back now, you will know that people
intentionally want to put Bode George out of
any consideration. Because I remember that
Yar’Adua after we finished the meeting of the
zoning, he told me that himself and I will work
together in the villa. That was what he told me.
I said as your lord pleases. Those who were part
and parcel of Bode must not be there. Bode
must not be this, were surreptitiously working.
Looking at what happened after the zoning,
after the late president told me myself and
himself are going to work together. The
invitation that Warida wanted to see me for
what? It was when we got there that they
started saying the charges, I can now look back
and tell the world the conspirators. Farida might
have played a very key role. Because she was in
charge.
I met her once at the stairway to the Office of
the President. I saw her with Aaoondaka. The
two of them were coming out of the President’s
office, I was going in. The lady came back was
greeting me. I didn’t know her; so I asked are
you a member of staff in the presidency? Are
you one of the new ministers? She said sir, I
know you very well. I know your wife. It was
then she said she is Farida Waziri. Then I said
now, it is your husband, I know very well. And
we exchanged pleasantries on that stairway.
Then she said this case that her predecessors
have just done there is nothing in it. I said
which case, she said the NPA case. But that
there is no problem. I then went to see the
president and we discussed totally unrelated
things and I left. I didn’t know Aaoondaka is
from the same local government as she has just
admitted.
I can now see, okay, some people didn’t want
me in the villa there to work. Why? They wanted
an empire for themselves to control. Because
having been the director general in the
campaign and the man having told me we are
going to work together, who could have been
stronger. That was their theory. I probably
thought it was a joke.
The thinking is that having a case, nobody will
give you any consideration. But you know the
awesomeness of the Almighty God, everybody
that was involved, was kicked out with disgrace.
I am saying this publicly for young persons who
are coming to learn a lesson. If you continue to
plan evil for people, be ready for tons and tons
of evil.
Would you say that internal party issues
contributed to your travails? Secondly, what is
your relationship with Chief Olusegun
Obasanjo presently?
I was deputy national chairman to Dr Ahmadu
Ali. Then for the presidential primaries and
election, I was made the director general. That
was all. What else did we do? It was good
working relationship. But some people have
their own idea. And the only way was to punish
this one. It was easy to rope in Bode George.
What did we do? It was just to remove me from
consideration. Not knowing that the master
planner was at work, sitting there looking at
these people manoeuvring on the chess board.
Where are they now? Some of them who were
the hunters then are being hunted.
Once you have an opportunity to do anything
for the country remember there would be a day
after. There is no perpetuity. A day after, people
will look at you and challenge you.
What is my relationship with Baba, you asked?
Baba will remain Baba. It cannot be like before.
I was Baba’s man Friday in the party and I have
no regret about that. Because like I always tell
people, it is turn-by-turn Nigeria limited. For me
and baba, no love lost. Baba is no longer
president, I am no longer deputy national
chairman. But as an African child, you must give
respect to elders. If I see Baba, it is the usual
greetings. It cannot be as before.
I have learnt a lot during the crisis and there
was actually one major thing that pained me.
After we left prison, we went to thank God and
we brought Baba there. As for Baba, I don’t
know where that thing that we are celebrating
criminality came from. When you worked for
somebody loyally, committedly, you don’t expect
such a thing. What are we celebrating?
When Baba left prison, there was thanksgiving
because he didn’t die there. Others who were
politically incarcerated, if you don’t die there,
you pick some diseases. So what did you want
us to do? If I invited all those people from
prison that day, I must be a super human
being.
I thank God that I was healthy. For 18 months,
I never went to hospital.
I am not bittered. The day we came out at the
church service, the President sent a
representative. At the reception here, the first
lady came. What other encouragement do you
need?
How do you think you can be compensated?
God has already compensated me. I don’t need
any other compensation. The fact that I went
there, came out, I didn’t suffer any lumbago, I
didn’t suffer any disease and my faculty is still
razor sharp, what other compensation do I
need? The only compensation that I need is to
be able to tell other Nigerians to learn from
this. To tell those in authority never to use their
position to oppress others.