You should’ve paid PDP ground rent, Bode George tells Wike

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Bode George, on Tuesday, expressed sadness over the sealing of the party’s national secretariat by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA).

On Monday, the FCTA, led by Minister Nyesom Wike, sealed off the PDP national secretariat in Abuja over an alleged failure to pay ground rent.

The PDP headquarters was shut as part of the enforcement efforts of the FCTA, which recently cancelled 4,794 land titles in Wuse, Maitama, Asokoro, and Garki over “years of unpaid ground rents”.

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The defaulters were later granted a 14-day reprieve following the intervention of President Bola Tinubu.

Speaking in an interview on Channels Television, George lamented that Wike, who authorized the enforcement action, is a member of the PDP who should have paid the debt to show his loyalty to the party.

The PDP BoT member said Wike had occupied several political positions on the platform of the PDP since 1999.

“We were told we had not paid N7 million and so we defaulted on the ground rent. The painful part of it is that the minister is also a member of our party. They waited until the day we were to hold our NEC meeting to shut down the place,” the former Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, South, said.

“Talking as an African, culturally, let us look at it as his father’s house where he grew up, where he went to school and became a public personality. What do you do to pay back that family?

“Look at the appointments he had held. He has benefitted from the PDP massively.

“He should have just said to them, ‘okay, N7 million, I’ll pay from my pocket. Take the receipt back to the party’s secretariat’.

“And say, ‘you see, you people are foolish. I’m completely committed to this house; I am completely loyal to this house. I will not decimate it. This is the receipt, give me back my money’.

“That is what you call a true son of that family.”