By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor
LAGOS — Erstwhile Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George, yesterday, declared that he was neither a crook nor a criminal, saying even the judge who sent him to jail confessed he did not steal a kobo.

Noting that he was a victim of a conspiracy to put him out of circulation, George, at his 66th birthday thanksgiving in Lagos, said in the midst of his incarceration, he found a higher calling in God’s service in facilitating the release of many indigent persons wrongly imprisoned.

George, who spoke at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Kirikiri, Lagos, while admitting that he was susceptible to err like all human beings, however, affirmed: “But I am not a crook. I am not a criminal. I will never take what belongs to others.

“My incarceration at Kirikiri was not provoked by some personal wrongs or misdemanour. We were accused of contract splitting and an alleged disobedience of an administrative procedure. I was never at anytime in possession of an executive power to initiate a contract or grant personal approval. I worked as a part-time Chairman who sat at quarterly meetings and who had just one vote.

“I didn’t know any contractor. I never sponsored any memo. What’s more, the Executive Director (Engineering) who presented the memo of the alleged contract splitting was never arraigned nor queried.”

Continuing at the service attended by some of his associates including PDP 2011 gubernatorial candidate, Ade Dosunmu, George said:

“But through all the convoluted conspiracy and byzantine plot to get me out of circulation, I was never accused of personal benefits or financial gains from the alleged contract splitting. The presiding judge Olubunmi Oyewole was honest enough to say that we did not take one kobo from the coffers of Nigerian Ports Authority. For this, I give praise and thanks to God Almighty.”

Giving his experience in prison, he said:

“My imprisonment invariably became a liberation mission wherein the good Lord used me to intervene on behalf of other inmates who had been wrongly shackled sometimes for several years without trial.”

“Through the Blessings of the Good Lord, my intervention helped rescue many young men from untimely executions. God used me to help others to further their education while in unjust imprisonment,” George deposed.

Noting his personal and spiritual reformation, he deposed:

“My imprisonment which was clearly borne out of sheer malice and a malignant conspiracy from various interests was a good spiritual desert mandated by the Heavens. I am indeed a better man for having gone through the bitter experience of imprisonment. For here I have learnt the virtues of spiritual awakening and moral retooling of oneself,” he further deposed.