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Tag: Afenifere

  • Afenifere Refutes Alleged Support for Gbenga Daniel in Letter to Ogun APC

    Afenifere Refutes Alleged Support for Gbenga Daniel in Letter to Ogun APC

    The Yoruba Socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has sent a letter to the Ogun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), denying the authenticity of a previous statement that was attributed to the organization.

    A newspaper publication on Tuesday had featured a statement purportedly signed by Abagun Kole Omololu, who identified himself as the Organizing Secretary of Afenifere. In the statement, the Ogun APC was accused of insulting Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and a warning was issued to the party.

    In response, Afenifere, through its Secretary General, Chief Sola Ebiseni, addressed a letter directly to the Assistant Publicity Secretary of the Ogun APC, clarifying the matter. The letter stated that the position of Organizing Secretary was vacant, making it impossible for such a letter to have originated from that office.

    Furthermore, the statement emphasized that even if the office were occupied, it is not within its purview to speak on behalf of the organization. Afenifere adheres to the principle of neutrality and does not take sides or engage in political grandstanding.

    “Regarding your letter dated 27th June 2023 regarding the alleged misunderstanding between Otunba Gbenga Daniel, former Governor of Ogun State and present Senator representing Ogun East Senatorial District, and His Excellency, Dapo Abiodun, Governor of the State, please be informed that Afenifere is not aware of any such misunderstanding between these two prominent Yoruba figures.

    “In the event of such a situation, which is not uncommon, Afenifere follows established Yoruba practices for constructive intervention, which includes maintaining neutrality and not engaging in political grandstanding.

    “The statement attributed to Afenifere was not issued by the organization. We are surprised that, based on your position, you may be unaware that the office of the National Organizing Secretary of Afenifere is vacant. The previous holder of the position was dismissed, and his membership was suspended due to unauthorized and embarrassing public statements, a fact that the press is also aware of.

    “Moreover, it should be noted that it is not the responsibility of the National Organizing Secretary to speak on behalf of Afenifere in public communications,” the statement read.

  • Afenifere Rejects Tinubu’s Victory, Insists Peter Obi Won 2023 Presidential Polls

    Afenifere Rejects Tinubu’s Victory, Insists Peter Obi Won 2023 Presidential Polls

    The Pan Yoruba Socio-Political Group, Afenifere, has rejected the emergence of APC presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, as the president-elect, insisting that Labour party’s Peter Obi won the election.

    The group stated this in a statement signed and released by its National leader and Secretary General, Pa Ayo Adebanjo and Chief Sola Ebiseni, after its Special General Meeting, held, at Isanya-Ogbo, Ogun State, on Tuesday, March 7.

    The group denied sending any congratulatory message in the name of the group to any candidate.

    ‘’The results of the lawful votes at the election available to the Afenifere through credible sources confirm that His Excellency Peter Gregory Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, won the said election and we thus support his decision challenging the contrary Declaration by the INEC.

    The General Meeting hereby denounce in strong terms and dissociate Afenifere from any congratulatory message in the name of the Organisation or howsoever to any candidate as illegally declared by the INEC.

    Afenifere reiterates that for equity, fairness, national cohesion and peaceful corporate existence, the next President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be person of its Southern part and specifically the South East. We call on Nigerians to troop out enmasse and participate fully in the Gubernatorial and Houses of Assembly elections slated for the 11th March 2023.

    That with particular reference to Lagos State, Afenifere confirms that the Governorship candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour is a person of Yoruba origin, whose great- grandparents are not only Yoruba but definitely one of the notable founding families of Lagos. We unequivocally endorse and urge the people of Lagos to vote for him.”

    Reviewing, the last elections, the group stated that INEC failed to comply with its laid down electoral rules.

    These according to them include “destruction of ballot papers, snatching of ballot boxes, doctoring of figures and swapping of votes of candidates at the coalition centers through the amended and outlawed manual procedures which rendered the 25th February 2023 Presidential and National Assembly elections flawed in several respects as confirmed by local and international observers.

    Afenifere, therefore, called on “INEC to ensure free and credible Gubernatorial and Houses of Assembly elections in accordance with the constitution, the extant Electoral Act and its mandatory Guidelines earlier mentioned.”

  • We’ll garner 5million votes for Obi – Afenifere youths assure

    We’ll garner 5million votes for Obi – Afenifere youths assure

     
    The Afenifere National Youth Council has vowed to support the presidential candidate of Labour Party, Peter Obi, to become the President in the February 25 election.

    The National President of the council, Eniola Ojajuni, on Sunday, said this in Lagos.

    Ojajuni disclosed that Obi had support of the group because of his records while he was governor of Anambra State.

    He said one of the topnotch plans was the restructuring of Nigeria, believing that the poll will be free and fair.

    “We are here to endorse the candidate of the LP, Obi officially as the sole candidate for the Southwest youth wing. It took us almost three months to reach the conclusions amongst 147 youth groups in Yoruba land, and today, we officially announced Obi and his running mate, Ahmed Datti, as our sole candidate for the presidential election on Saturday.

    “Before we endorsed him, Obi assured us that the first thing he would do is to restructure the country.”

    “We believe that the election will hold, and it will be free and fair and the youths in the SW are ready to vote obi. Our target is to give him five million votes.”

    He implored Yoruba residents across the country to elect Obi, noting it is time for the South-East to become the president.

    “The reason we endorsed Obi is because the Yoruba has had his shot in the presidency through former President Olusegun Obasanjo, likewise former President Goodluck Jonathan who is from the South South. Our current president Muhammadu Buhari is from the North. It’s the turn of the Southeast to produce the presidency, for equity and justice,” he said.

  • Afenifere lambasts Ondo gov over comments on agitations

    Afenifere lambasts Ondo gov over comments on agitations

    Yoruba pan socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has lambasted Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu for saying separatist agenda would failed in the Southwest region.
    It said the statement credited to Governor Akeredolu confirmed the scarcity of statesmanship in the country particularly faced with the lust for political power.

    The Afenifere stated that the solution to separatists’ agitations was a Nigerian President of South East extraction and not what it termef ‘self-serving sanctimonious pontifications.’

    Secretary General, Afenifere, Sola Ebiseni, in a statement issued in Akure, said there was no region in the country where the elite including the ruling class in Government were able to determine the methods adopted by agitators or succeeded in checkmating the effects thereof.

    According to him, “So, let Akeredolu not boast of any capacity to dictate the method adopted by the Yoruba agitators or seek to set the rest of Nigeria against his Ndigbo colleagues or the entire South East in his unhidden separatist agenda of securing undue advantage for his party and region in the quest for the Nigerian President of Southern extraction.

    “We state for the umpteenth time, that the true and real recipe for peace and continued corporate existence of Nigeria, ipsofacto, is an arrangement that will guarantee regional equity and not an ‘emi lo kan’ philosophy in the mode of King Louis’s l’état c’est moi.”

  • North can’t decide who will be President – Adebanjo

    North can’t decide who will be President – Adebanjo

    The leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has said the North cannot dictate to the rest of the country who becomes the president.

    Adebanjo spoke on Monday during a public lecture themed, ‘Nationalism and nation-building in Nigerian history,’ held at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs on Victoria Island, Lagos.

    He said, “It was said that the South-East must come to negotiate with the North because politics is a game of numbers. My case is – and I told people yesterday – the case for the East is not to beg for a favour; it is their right. Yet, each time I hear that they should go around because the North has the population, what fraudulent population? You can’t sell that to me.

    “They tell us to work together but unfortunately because they now have produced a president at the helm of affairs, they say ‘no one can become president except you come to the North and unfortunately, some southerners have been brainwashed that they can’t do anything except they bow to the North. I don’t believe it.

    “What right has the North to dictate who will become our president? We were brought together not by peace, not by agreement, they forced us together and we agreed, so to continue to live together in peace must be by agreeable terms. The East has the right not because he is Igbo but because it is in Nigeria. The principle of Afenifere is on ideological basis and principle of rightness, inclusiveness and not any sentiment.”

    The President of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Prof. George Obiozor, in his opening remark, explained that no generation of Nigerian leaders since independence had been able to create an atmosphere of credibility to ensure Nigeria’s claim to a political future as one nation.

    He said, “Recently, some Nigerian political leaders have said that Nigerian unity is non-negotiable. This is an irony because these leaders seem to have forgotten Nigerian history or have failed to learn the lessons of history in general.

    “Nigerian unity is definitely negotiable and must be re-negotiated for it to stand or survive the test of time. The reality over the years remains that in spite of the best efforts of all our leaders past or present, Nigerian unity is not guaranteed.

    “It is simply, at best, an aspiration and not yet an achievement. Consequently, the statement that Nigerian unity is ‘non-negotiable’ is simply a historical fallacy.”

    On his part, the National Director of Publicity of the Northern Elders Forum, Dr Hakeem Ahmed, said, “Some Nigerian political leaders have said Nigeria’s unity is non-negotiable. I don’t know who these people are, but I can tell you they are not of the North and they are not related to the NEF.

    “Nigeria’s unity is negotiable. You either negotiate it because nations are very fragile and very delicate and you have to nurture them and pay attention to their need or they break and we are at that breaking point.”

    The guest lecturer, Prof. Jide Osuntokun, lamented that since 1966, Nigeria had struggled to find a method to balance the regional desire for autonomy under a national structure.

  • New Afenifere faction endorses Kwankwaso for presidency

    New Afenifere faction endorses Kwankwaso for presidency

    A splinter group within the Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has emerged.

    Known as New Afenifere, leaders of the group met Presidential Candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, in Lagos on Sunday and threw their weight behind him.

    It was gathered that the division within the camp of Afenifere deepened after the group purportedly endorsed the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    But the Acting Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, is backing the candidate of the Labour Party, Mr. Peter Obi.

    In a twist to the division in the Pan-Yoruba group, the New Afenifere announced its support for Kwankwaso on Sunday.

    The Coordinator of New Afenifere, Comrade Ajibade Adeyeye, stressed that his group chose to identify with the NNPP presidential candidate because of his track record.

    “The new Afenifere hereby states that we are concerned socio political umbrella known as new Afenifere and I dare say we have decided to take our future into our hands to prepare for the upcoming 2023 election.”

    “We have called on our elder statesmen not to impose on us anymore but to allow us to choose our preferred presidential candidate because we believe we are old enough to make decision for ourselves and for our future.

    “So, on behalf of the New Afenifere, we have decided to forge ahead and endorse the candidature of senator, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, together with his running mate, Bishop Isaac Idahosa to see toward a new Nigeria.”

    The NNPP presidential candidate who welcomed the endorsement promised to run an inclusive governance, stressing his party would salvage the country.

    He said, “Let me on behalf of the members of our party thank the leadership of the New Afenifere, for finding us worthy of this endorsement. I am not surprised that these young men have decided to endorse us because even in Kano, North West, South, we have young men and women who are supporting this course.

    “I believe NNPP is for the young people, world and everybody, so I want to thank you for the foresight and for doing the right thing and I want to assure you that our party will carry each and everyone along of you at national level, zone, state and even at grassroots.

    “Everybody knows today where we are in this country, the challenges that we have really have to do with the type of leadership that we had right from 1999 till date and that is why we felt new ideas, new thinking must come in for us to change the status quo.

    “The two parties have failed in our opinion. PDP was the first to fail, then we thought another progressive party in the name of APC will save this country but many people are of the opinion that even PDP was better than the APC because of where we found ourselves in term of security, economy, dilapidated infrastructure and so on.

    “Our young men can not go to school, either because of the strike, insecurity or money to buy forms or to maintain themselves in schools but our party has come out to ensure that every child have access to education, not minding it economic status. I thank you for creating time, and I want to assure you that we will work together in the south west and in Nigeria.”

  • 2023: Adebanjo Rubbishes Fasoranti’s Endorsement of Tinubu, Says Afenifere Still Stand with Obi

    2023: Adebanjo Rubbishes Fasoranti’s Endorsement of Tinubu, Says Afenifere Still Stand with Obi

    The leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has rubbished the endorsement of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate,Bola Tinubu by Pa Reuben Fasoranti, in Akure, Ondo State on Sunday.

    Adebanjo said the endorsement by Fasoranti and some other Afenifere leaders does not hold water as they can’t speak on behalf of the group.

    Chief Adebanjo insisted that he is the current leader of the Afenifere and the earlier-announced decision not to support Tinubu’s presidential ambition is still in place because in the spirit of fairness and justice, it is not the turn of the southwest to produce the next Nigerian President.

    He argued that the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi remains the choice of the pan-Yoruba group for the 2023 presidency.

    Speaking further, Adebanjo revealed that Pa Fasoranti called him on Saturday over the planned meeting with Tinubu and he warned him not to allow himself to be used to cause any confusion.

    While further warning them not to cause division within Afenefere, Adebanjo claimed that those who were at the meeting with Tinubu are not Afenifere leaders but merely APC chieftains from the southwest.

    He said “The Yoruba People know their leader. I’ve spoken, the National Secretary has spoken. This is no the time to engage in polemics. The way forward is my position.

    “What happened was a diversion. They want us to be engaged in arguments. Is that the issue now?

    “Can he (Tinubu) deny it that the South-West has not had its turn? Can he deny it South-South has not had its turn? They should answer that. As far as I am concerned, the meeting does not concern us as Afenifere.

    “Afenifere is not divided. That was why I said I don’t want to engage in polemics. They want to throw a wedge between me and Pa Reuben Fasoranti and I won’t allow it. The man phoned me yesterday and I warned him, don’t get yourself involved.”

  • 2023: Again, Afenifere Declares Support For Peter Obi

    2023: Again, Afenifere Declares Support For Peter Obi

    Pan Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Monday, restated support for the presidential ambition of Labour Party’s Peter Obi, saying it won’t compromise its cherished principles of justice, equity and inclusiveness.

    Afenifere’s leader, Ayo Adebanjo, stated this at a press conference held at the Wheatbaker Hotel in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.

    94-year-old Adebanjo said to keep Nigeria one in 2023, every Nigeria should be “Obi-Datti compliant”. Obi is running for Aso Rock’s top job alongside Datti Baba-Ahmed.

    “The South-West has produced a president and currently sits as vice-president, the South-South has spent a total of six years in the presidency but the Igbo people of the South-East have never tasted presidency in Nigeria, and now that the power is due back in the South, equity demands that it be ceded to the Igbo.

    “We cannot continue to demand that the Igbo people remain in Nigeria, while we at the same time continue to brutally marginalize and exclude them from the power dynamic.

    “Peter Obi is the person of Igbo extraction that Afenifere has decided to support and to back, he is the man we trust to restructure the country back to federalism on the assumption of office.

    “We will not compromise this principle of justice, equity and inclusiveness because one of our own Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is a frontline candidate,” he said.

    The nonagenarian’s comments come about a day after the Director of Media and Publicity of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga, took a swipe at him (Adebanjo) over his public support for Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, saying the Afenifere leader speaks for himself and not for the Yoruba people.

    Adebanjo, who defended his group’s position on Obi on Monday, said Nigeria’s next president should come from the South-East to keep the country together and quell dissenting voices along the lines of secession.

    “We enjoin the labour movement, students, youth organisations, women associations, and every institution whose foundation is built on fairness and justice to join hands in this task of enthroning a democratic government by supporting Peter Obi.

    “If we are sincere and honest about keeping Nigeria together in peace, the slogan henceforth should be ‘To keep Nigeria one, everyone should be Obi/Datti compliant.’

    “In the final analysis, let it be said that we have no apologies but due courage of our conviction that Nigeria can only prosper in righteousness.

    “For me, in the twilight of my sojourn on earth at 94, it is too late to derail me on the track of true federalism and National inclusiveness on which I have travelled for over 70 years of my life as one of the few surviving initial prophets, I prefer to ascend on a chariot of fire, fueled by justice and equity,” Adebanjo added.

    Earlier, apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide declared support for 61-year-old Obi.

  • Peter Obi meets Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo

    Peter Obi meets Afenifere leader, Ayo Adebanjo

    The Labour Party, LP, presidential candidate, Peter Obi has met with the leader of Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo.

    Obi met with Adebanjo and members of the South and Middle Belt Leadership Forum on Tuesday.

    In a tweet, the LP presidential candidate said he was accompanied by members of the party and other stakeholders.

    He wrote: “Presently visiting Pa Ayo Adebanjo and members of the South and Middle Belt Leadership Forum. The National leaders of the Labour Party and other stakeholders are here too. -PO”

    This is coming after the former Anambra State governor visited the Olu of Warri, His Majesty, Ogiame Atuwatse.

    The development is coming on the heels of Olu’s first anniversary since he ascended the throne in 2021.

  • We know Peter Obi very well, He will not Disappoint – Adebanjo

    We know Peter Obi very well, He will not Disappoint – Adebanjo

    Leader of Afenifere, Ayo Adebanjo, has explained why the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation is supporting Peter Obi ahead of Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    In a tweet, Adebanjo said Tinubu will only continue President Muhammadu Buhari’s incompetent leadership.

    He urged Nigerians to put aside tribal differences and vote for the right leadership.

    “Ahmed Tinubu will only give continuity to Buhari’s incompetence,” Adebanjo said.

    “We know Peter Obi very well, that is why we endorse him. He will not disappoint Nigerians, let us out tribal difference apart and vote right leaders.”