Obanikoro Advises Bode George To 'Seek Rehabilitation'

Bode George, left and Obanikoro.

Senator Musiliu Obanikoro has responded to ex-Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George’s recent description of him as a “desperate, sinking man in need of psychiatric help”.

It was reported on Friday that George , while responding to Obanikoro’s refusal to accept his defeat at the Lagos State governorship primary held few weeks ago, had advised the former minister to seek “psychiatric help”.

According to a statement issued by the leader of the PDP in Lagos, he said: “One has refrained from engaging Senator Musiliu Obanikoro despite his gross and alarmist provocations. I have deliberately remained distant and quiet, ignoring the stark obscenities of a desperate and obsessed man who is apparently incapable of absorbing the reality of his defeat by a well-bred and better man.

“For Obanikoro to claim in sheer ludicrousness that I, even remotely, identify with any intimations of violence is utter lunacy and blind, vindictive madness. Surely, Obanikoro is possessed and obsessed. He needs immediate psychiatric treatment. He is a desperate sinking man, grasping and thrashing in self inflicted chasm.

“What is the pedigree of this young man who has abandoned the typical African deference to Elders? We know who sprung from violence and banditry. We know whose antecedents reek in noisome, vagrant, untidy ruffianism.

“Politics is not a do or die affair. No civilized person with impeccable pedigree will seek a tacky refuge in destruction and ruin simply because he has lost in a free and fair contest. Obanikoro should go quietly into that good night if he means well for Lagos.

“Enough of his desperate tantrums and lunacy. Lagos has moved on, far beyond the primitive wretchedness of little, ill-bred hooligans.”

Responding to the statement at the weekend, Obanikoro urged George to seek rehabilitation over his post-traumatic stress arising from his stint in jail.

In a statement signed by Obanikoro, he said: “if not to set records straight, engaging Chief Bode George in an exchange of words would mean painfully indulging a man in desperate need of social rehabilitation after a traumatic stint in jail.

“Indeed, there is nothing unexpected about the recent tantrums by Chief Bode George targeted at me in spite of the ignoble role he played in the fraudulent outcome of the Lagos PDP gubernatorial primaries.

“As Chief Bode George embarks on his feeble attempts at painting a picture of me that exists only in his perverted imagination, let someone remind him that the post-traumatic stress disorder that comes with a time in jail would take more than just an unholy alliance with a pharmacist to heal.

“It is instructive to state here that not only that I am properly raised in the best of Yoruba tradition, I owe a large part of my successful public service career to a childhood and education built on godly principles and sound moral values.

“In all my life and public service career, I have never been accused, arrested or convicted for fraud whether at home in Nigeria or abroad and I have been happily and responsibly married for 34 years.”

Obanikoro added that his desire to challenge the outcome of the PDP Lagos guber primaries was his fundamental human rights based on his conviction that the primaries was flawed.

He stated that his desire to seek a redress is not a reason for Bode George to engage in character assassination.

Obanikoro had earlier described George as someone without the capacity for peace.

It would be recalled that Obanikoro came second an the controversial PDP gubernatorial primary election held in Lagos.

He petitioned the PDP, after which he headed to the law court when he got no response from the party.