By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
The leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, on Tuesday dismissed all chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as lacking in integrity.
Adebanjo said this while fielding questions on Arise Television. The interview was monitored by TheNiche.
Adebanjo who dismissed claims that former President Goodluck Jonathan only appointed the Afenifere old guards in the person of Chief Olu Falae and himself into the 2014 Constitutional Conference dismissed the claim as hogwash.
Adebanjo asked, “Were we the oldest people at that conference?”
Explaining what happened, Adebanjo said, “Let me make this clear. Jonathan asked people to come under several categories. I and Olu Falae were chosen by Jonathan as elder statesmen. Go and look at the records. But because they (Southwest APC chieftains) were spiteful of the Conference, they didn’t have the details. They wanted to confuse everybody at that time on the Conference we have been agitating for to reform and restructure the country to federalism.”
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Accusing former Lagos State governor, who is a chieftain of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, of duplicity, Adebanjo said Tinubu had already jumped on the restructuring bandwagon before APC came on board.
“But because he has this false claim that he wants to be president by aligning with Buhari, he (Tinubu) couldn’t say anything straight. When they announced the Conference, Tinubu said, oh, it was a diversion – a diversion for a conference he has been shouting about since he came in that there must be National Conference for us to change the Constitution to federalism as against the fraudulent one imposed on us?
“But because he had a parley with these people, he said, oh no, it was a diversion. And they said that restructuring was number one in their (APC) agenda but when they came in, their chairman then, Chief John Oyegun, said restructuring was not their priority. Their priority is now corruption.
“The inconsistency and the lying of APC members is clear throughout their career. Their word is not their bond. You cannot rely on any of them. There is no person of integrity among them from the President downwards. They don’t keep to their words. They don’t understand what a gentleman’s agreement is. So they are reaping the fruits of inconsistency and disloyalty amongst themselves.”
Adebanjo said Chief Bisi Akande’s controversial biography was an attempt to ingratiate himself to Tinubu.
“He (Akande) is the apron string of Tinubu now. He is now coming up to Tinubu to claim that he is the only champion of his cause. They knew all the agreement they had before and when they see now that Buhari is trying to renege on them, Akande is trying to tell Tinubu, I am the only one who is championing your cause. They know all the evil that they are doing. But Buhari has let them down.
“That is why even when claiming to be a partner in government, they don’t know what is going on and they are now disputing the terms of the agreement. That shows you how genuine and sincere their cooperation was ab-initio. There is no sincerity there.
“The government is now saying, this is not what we agreed to and you are carrying on for five years and up till now, you have not broken out. If you know that is not the agreement, why are you still there when all the evils are being done to the people of the Southwest? They are killing us and committing all manner of atrocities and there is not a word from APC, not a word from Tinubu, not a word from Akande. All the kidnappings, killings, etc., in the Southwest, only the Afenifere was talking and shouting about it. Tinubu kept mum and APC kept mum and they claim to be leaders of Yorubaland.
“They invaded Sunday Igboho’s house without any cause. He was just asking for a satisfactory constitution and instead of discussing that, the man (Buhari) unlawfully invaded his house, under a constitutional democracy, killed people there, destroyed his property and the man took them to court and a court of competent jurisdiction said this man has not committed any offence, you should release him and compensate him for all the property he has lost.
“The man who claims to be a born again democrat does not obey the court order. Which court order has Buhari obeyed? I dont want to talk about the Buhari government and Tinubu and Akande and the disaster they have brought to Nigeria, to Yorubaland. The unfortunate thing is that they are still shameless.”
