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Tag: Afenifere

  • ‘National Conference modalities flawed’

    ‘National Conference modalities flawed’

    Pan-Yoruba groups, comprising the Afenifere Renewal Group, Coalition of O’dua Self Determination Groups, O’dua Nationalist Coalition, Atayese and Afenifere Youth Movement, have described modalities for the proposed National Conference as “ridiculous.”

    In a statement, they said: “The nation remembers the Independence Day broadcast of President Goodluck Jonathan, which rekindled the hope for a genuine National Conference. But the proposed modality for the conference has slaughtered that hope.

    “President Jonathan promised that there would not be ‘no-go areas’ and that he will not tamper with the process. With these, Nigerians expressed the desire for a new constitution that would be ratified through a referendum. However, since the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue, led by Senator Femi Okurounmu, submitted its report, we have witnessed disappointments. We are now presented with a conference, whose modalities are incongruous with the President’s promise and the expectations that Nigerians exhibited at the public sittings.

    “Being consistent and strident advocates of a National Conference, Yoruba people expected socio-political, cultural and ethnic organisations to be the main, if not only, stakeholders at the conference, not a potpourri of “interest groups” that did not even deem it fit to make public presentations to the Okurounmu committee.

    “For example, there would be five delegates representing five national academies and we are wondering what national interest these academies are pursuing that is not already covered by their parent ministries and, by extension, the Federal Government. The President would nominate six Judiciary delegates but the Nigerian Bar Association is allowed just one delegate, while the nomination of 24 delegates is ceded to civil society groups, which have no known umbrella or regulatory body. These examples are cited without prejudice to the fact that any Nigerian is qualified to be a delegate. However, after wide consultation with our people, we have decided to continue with the same cautious optimism we expressed when this initiative was unveiled.

    “The Yoruba people will participate in the conference, believing it may be the step to take this process back to the sublime. We enjoin Yoruba individuals and groups to participate in the Yoruba Constitutional Conference on Feb 12 in Ibadan at the House of Chiefs in the Oyo State Secretariat, where we shall discuss the future of Yoruba nation and our approach to the National Conference.

    “To President Jonathan, we say that this conference will make or mar your tenure. This trend of gaining public support and losing it too quickly is becoming characteristic of this administration and he needs to consider where his allegiance lies – whether as a statesman thinking of the next generation as espoused in his Independence Day broadcast or as a politician thinking of the next election.

    “To the would-be delegates, we urge you to draw inspiration from the 55 delegates that wrote a new constitution for the United States. Nigerians have no business with poverty, unemployment, corruption, religious extremism, nepotism and other vices threatening the nation’s sovereignty. We will continue to clamour for Nigeria to be restructured into a true federal structure that will allow viable federating units to unleash their creative and developmental potential under an unfettered political structure.

    “As a people, we are ready to work with stakeholders to ensure that the conference meets the aspirations of Nigerians anchored on a new constitution. However, Yoruba people reserve the right to take our destiny in our hands, if the present effort yields no desirable fruit.”

  • Yoruba groups: National Conference modalities flawed

    Yoruba groups: National Conference modalities flawed

    Pan-Yoruba groups, comprising the Afenifere Renewal Group, Coalition of O’dua Self Determination Groups, O’dua Nationalist Coalition, Atayese and the Afenifere Youth Movement, have described modalities for the proposed National Conference as “ridiculous”.

    In a statement, they said: “The nation remembers the Independence Day broadcast of President Goodluck Jonathan, which rekindled the hope for a genuine National Conference and enjoyed the support of Nigerians. But the proposed modality for the conference has slaughtered that hope.

    “President Jonathan promised that there would not be ‘no go areas’ and that he will not tamper with the process. With these, Nigerians expressed the desire for a new constitution that would only be ratified through a referendum. However, since the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue, led by Senator Femi Okurounmu, submitted its report, we have witnessed catalogues of disappointments. We are now presented with a conference, whose modalities are incongruous with the President’s promise and the expectations that Nigerians exhibited through and during the public sittings.

    “Being consistent and strident advocates of a National Conference, Yoruba people expected socio-political, cultural and ethnic organisations to be the main, if not only, stakeholders at the conference, not a potpourri of “interest groups” that did not even deem it fit to make public presentations to Okurounmu’s committee.

    “For example, there would be five delegates representing five national academies and we are wondering what national interest these academies are pursuing that is not already covered by their parent ministries and, by extension, the Federal Government. The President would nominate six Judiciary delegates but the Nigerian Bar Association is allowed just one delegate, while the nomination of 24 delegates is ceded to civil society groups, which have no known umbrella or regulatory body. These examples are cited without prejudice to the fact that any Nigerian is qualified to be a delegate. However, after wide consultation with our people, which is ongoing, we have decided to continue with the same cautious optimism we expressed when this initiative was unveiled.

    “The Yoruba people will participate in the conference, believing it may be the step that will take this process back to the sublime. We enjoin

    Yoruba individuals and groups to participate in the Yoruba Constitutional Conference coming up on Feb 12 in Ibadan at the House of Chiefs in the Oyo State Secretariat, where we shall gather to discuss the future of Yoruba nation and our approach to the National Conference.

    “To President Jonathan, we say that this conference will make or mar your tenure. This trend of gaining public support and losing it all too quickly is becoming characteristic of this administration and he needs to consider where his allegiance lies – whether as a statesman thinking of the next generation as espoused in his Independence Day broadcast or as a politician thinking of the next election.

    “To the would-be delegates, we urge you to draw inspiration from the 55 delegates that wrote a new constitution for the United States (U.S.). Nigerians have no business with poverty, unemployment, corruption, religious extremism, nepotism and other vices threatening the nation’s sovereignty. We will continue to clamour for Nigeria to be restructured into a true federal structure that will allow viable federating units to unleash their creative and developmental potentials under an unfettered political structure.

    “As a people, we are ready to work with stakeholders to ensure that the conference meets the aspirations of Nigerians for a new country anchored on a new constitution. However, Yoruba people reserve the right to take our destiny in our hands, if the current effort yields no desirable fruit.”

  • Afenifere Renewal Group condoles with family, others

    Afenifere Renewal Group condoles with family, others

    The Afenifere Renewal Group(ARG) has expressed shock over the news of a plane crash in Lagos carrying the corpse of late Chief Olusegun Agagu and others to Ondo State for burial rites.

    According to Kunle Famoriyo, Media/Publicity Secretary (ARG). the group noted that Agagu’s burial rites did not deserve such a terrible ill-fate occasioned by the rot and corruption that bedevil our nation in an un-restrained manner.

    ARG equally condemned rumours which aim to attribute the obnoxious incident to some unfounded fetishism. Such barbaric utterances could help to create the atmosphere to ensure the immediate and remote causes of the crash are never known as is the tradition of plane crashes in Nigeria. We, therefore, urge all Nigerians to replace such rumour with the clamour for transparency and uncompromised upholding of aviation standards and policies.

    When previous errors are not decisively and wholesomely corrected, there is bound to be a repeat. We cannot confidently say that plane crashes have been handled in such a way that will forestall it, judging from the frequency of occurrence.

    Our hearts grieve and we condole with the Agagu family and families of other victims of the plane crash, the government and people of Ondo State, the entire Yoruba land and Nigeria as a whole.

  • Afenifere, ACF: conference in order

    Afenifere, ACF: conference in order

    The President’s planned national dialogue received kudos and knocks yesterday. Many others were cautious, others dismissed it as diversionary.

    Groups, such as the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG), the Arewa Consultative Forun (ACF) and the senate and expectedly the President’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) welcome it, others disagree.

    The ARG in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Kunle Famoriyo, said although the group had been asking unwaveringly  for a Sovereign National Conference, it would cooperate with and support the Advisory Council set up by the President where necessary.

    The ARG said it believes that “the committee chairman, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, who has spent a significant part of his life in the struggle for democracy and true federalism, will work to produce a guideline that we can all be proud of, provided the government has not dictated a “No Go Area” to the committee.”

    The group urged Jonathan to ensure that this latest move was towards sincere ending the country’s many problems. It recalled that many conferences had be constituted in the past that never yielded any dividend for the people of Nigeria.

    “We also urge him not to place any restriction on the committee’s term of reference and the proposed conference should have no prohibition clause like Senate President David Mark suggested.”

    The ACF yesterday said it would support any dialogue that would bring about the strengthening of the Nigeria Project.

    Its spokesman Anthony Sani, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna that:

    “The ACF has made it clear long ago that it is not opposed to any national dialogue that can calm nerves and bring about the strengthening of the Nigeria project, provided such national dialogue would not take the form of a Sovereign National Conference.

    “This is because a sovereign national conference amounts to vote of no confidence on our democracy and its institutions, which nobody or group has the right to do.

    “So national dialogue through national conference, yes; through sovereign national conference, no.

    “There is therefore nothing wrong in setting up a committee by the Federal Government to work out the form or modality of the proposed national dialogue.”

    Sani, however said the ACF would take a final stand, when the “the form and content” of the committee was unveiled to Nigerians by the federal government.

    The Senate said the plan is in line with its position.

    Senate spokesman Enyinnaya Abaribe said: “This initiative is in sync with the Senate’s position, as articulated by the Senate President in his address on Sept. 17.

    “The Senate President had advocated a conference of nationalities to discuss the Nigerian question,” Abaribe said.

    He said the Senate would welcome anything that the Federal Government will do to enable Nigerians to sit together and talk in order to resolve some national issues and promote unity.

    The national dialogue plan lacks credibility and smacks of a hidden agenda, a retired Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Babankowa, and Gen Muhammadu Buhari’s ally, said yesterday. He described the plan as ill-timed because the country was battling a myriad of problems which should be urgently tackled.

    Babankowa said: “What President Jonathan did in the formation of the national dialogue committee, is uncalled for, because the nation is in critical condition that needs urgent attention”, advising that Nigerians should not be dragged into another diversionary issue.

    He urged the government to rethink its approach to national issues that are going out of hand.

    Senior lawyers: Adeniyi Akintola, (SAN), Chief Felix Fagbohungbe, SAN; fMohammed Belgore, SAN; and Joseph Nwobike, SAN, Dr. Fred Agbaje, and Ebun Olu Adegboruwa, also spoke on the plan.

    Akintola said the circumstances under the declaration should be critically observed.

    He said: “The question to ask is whether the President is loyal to the cause or believes in Sovereign National Conference? Nobody wants Nigeria to disintegrate but the politicians must be sincere and show Nigerians their sincerity.

    “Was the call due to prevailing circumstances? Is it a diversionary tactic? I do not see President Jonathan as a believer of SNC. I see him as part of those who believe in maintaining the status quo.

    “We need a conference where we can say the truth to ourselves. I am not deceived by the call and I take everything he said with a pinch of salt.

    “It is a good call if he means It, but Nigerian leaders have never walked their talk. He will have to go the extra mile to regain the people’s confidence.”

    To Belgore, the president’s statement was hollow and lacked specifics.

    He said: “There is nothing to celebrate in what the president said. It is a hollow statement that is lacking in specifics.

    “We are waiting for the details because it is the detail that will reveal the president’s real intention, whether there will be any genuine national dialogue or this is just another political ruse.”

    Agbaje said Jonathan should be commended for thinking out of the box, though he expressed his reservation on the sincerity of purpose.

    “Previous and present governments have played ostrich with the idea of a SNC. Nigerian political leaders have pretended not to know that our problem is gangantua in nature to warrant a national discourse.

    “Although Jonathan has belatedly called for and supported it, we must be careful.

    “The question here is whether it is going to be sovereign or near national? Is the government prepared not to tinker with the resolution that will come out of the conference? Above all, will the government implement it?

    “There must be answers to these questions, otherwise, the so-called conference will become a jamboree,” Agbaje said.

    Mr Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa, a Lagos-based lawyer, commended the President for the initiative, adding that it must be geared towards meeting genuine aspirations of the people.”What Nigerians are yearning for is a conference that will see to the resolution of the fundamental problems of our nation.”The Federal Government must confer with civil society organisations and various other entities and get their various representatives to form consultative committee to pilot the birth of this National Conference.”Nigerians should be involved. We have gone through this road before and we didn’t get anywhere.”I believe we should be saved from that scenario, it should be a fruitful conference,” Olu-Adegboruwa said.

    The President lacks the “capacity and capability” to conduct a national dialogue or conference, Executive Secretary of the Anti-Corruption Network, Dino Melaye, has said.

    Melaye said Jonathan cannot conduct an acceptable national dialogue at this time because he has divided the country along “ethnic and religious lines.”

    He said: “This government is a government of lies, ifs and committees. they have not implemented recommendations of the committees.

    “The white paper on the post electoral crisis committee by Sheik Ahmed Lemu, where is Prof. Femi Odekunle and company?

    “The Civil Service Reforms Committee headed by former Head of Service, Steve Orosanye’s report is there, nothing has been done on it. The Nuhu Ribadu’s committee was set up again, they have submitted their report, nothing has happened.

    “The NEITI report is also available, nothing has happened. The Aig-Imhokhuede’s report is there, nothing has happened. As far as we are concerned, the setting up of the committee is just to economically empower some individuals.”

    He further said that the country needs a father-like President like Nelson Mandela of South Africa to conduct a national conference.

    Melaye added: “Goodluck Jonathan cannot conduct a national dialogue. I said Goodluck Jonathan does not have the capability and capacity to organise a national dialogue.

    “To organise a national dialogue, you need a fatherly-postured President who will bring all parties without rancor. But Jonathan has further divided this country on the grounds of religion and ethnicity which has made it practically impossible for him as a President to organise a national dialogue.”

  • Afenifere decries govt’s neglect of education

    Afenifere decries govt’s neglect of education

    Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has decried Federal Government’s neglect of public education.

    The group, in a statement yesterday by its Media/Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo, said: “We of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) note that although the education sector got the highest percentage of budgetary allocation in the 2013 Appropriation Act, we are yet to see this allocation translate into tangible results in our federal tertiary institutions. “Rather, the strike embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has entered the second month, with no end in sight.

    “The sector got N367.375 billion for recurrent expenditure and N60.207 billion for capital expenditure. This translates to N427.582 billion, representing 7.9 per cent of the total budget.

    “In 2012, the sector got N397.378 billion, representing 8.5 per cent of the total budget.

    “Despite these high allocations, the sector has seen no improvement, an evidence of government’s insensitivity to the plight of the people and its ineptitude in managing the nation’s resources for the greater good.

    “We are also witnessing misplaced priority in this sector. Between 2010 and now, the Federal Government has spent about N32.8 billion on printing primary school textbooks and procuring library resources, a project that has borne no commensurate impact, according to an investigative article, headlined: “Many Problems of Fed Govt’s Textbook Project,” published in The Nation recently.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Afenifere commiserates with Fashola

    Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) has said it was shocked to receive the news of the passing away of Pa Ademola Fashola, the father of Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola.

    Its Media/Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo, said: “We commiserate with our governor and his family on the transition of their patriarch. We urge them to seek solace in the comfort that the Holy Month of Ramadan brings. We pray Almighty Allah to grant him eternal rest.

    “Pa Fashola’s legacies could be seen in the diligent and productive approach his son has brought to governance in the state. We in ARG celebrate his noble character.”

  • Al-Mustapha: Afenifere, others reject court verdict

    Al-Mustapha: Afenifere, others reject court verdict

    The Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, and the Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND) have rejected the weekend verdict of the Court of Appeal over the discharge and acquittal of Major Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Sofolahan over the murder of Alhaja Kudirat Abiola.

    KIND, the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) established in memory of the late activist, wants the Attorney General of Lagos State to challenge the judgment at the Supreme Court. According to it, the appeal is in the overall interest of the dead and the living.

    It said it is also weighing the option of launching a civil action after obtaining the judgment and commissioning “a team of legal experts to study it in detail, with a view to determining whether a civil action is advisable at this point.”

    According to the NGO, in asking for the matter to go to the apex court, it is not in any way “seeking vengeance or retribution,” but “a final judicial resolution of the question, “Who killed Kudirat Abiola?”

    It said: “Justice has not been served by the judgment of the Court of Appeal” and recalled that the judiciary has failed in resolving any of the murder cases from the Abacha years to the assassination of Chief Bola Ige under the Obasanjo government.

    “Is it that the Nigerian judiciary is incapable of resolving cases of political murders and assassinations, or that the Nigerian state lacks the competence, capability or will to prosecute cases of political murders?” it wondered and added: “With this reversal, the Nigerian judiciary has now exonerated all persons that were brought to trial for the gruesome acts of murders and attempted murders that took place during the Abacha regime (before now, the persons tried for the attempted assassinations of Alex Ibru and Pa Abraham Adesanya had been set free, Muhammed Abacha, General Ishaya Bamaiyi, and the police officers, Alhaji Danbaba, and Rabo Lawal). Also, the men who were herded into court for the assassination of Pa Alfred Rewane were released for want of evidence. “

    Afenifere also expressed dissatisfaction with the judgement of the Lagos State chapter of the group saying:”In our opinion, the witnesses who gave evidence of the truth at the inception of the trial were instigated to contradict their evidence to render the evidence ineffective.

    “Nigerians must remember that Kudirat and other Nigerians who were opposed to the Abacha regime were brutally butchered. We doubt if the law enforcement agencies will need to look for other culprits for these crimes. We already know who the murderers and accomplices are.”

    Mr Adamu Turaki, Chairman, Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Jigawa chapter, however commended the appeal court for acquitting Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha and Alhaji Lateef Shofolahan.

    Turaki told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse that the judgment was commendable and will repose more confidence in the judiciary, considering the length of time spent on the trial.

    Lagos lawyer, Mr. Ebun Adegboruwa, said while he is happy that the system of due process and democratic resort to the law court, for redress, is working, “had the judgment of the Justice Mojisola Dada, of the Lagos High Court, that sentenced him to death, been delivered in 1994 when Al-Mustapha was CSO to late Gen Sani Abacha, he would have been executed by now. It is indeed gratifying that Al-Mustapha is now benefitting from the same judiciary that he worked tirelessly to annihilate.”

    He added: “Thus, I cannot take the acquittal as a verdict of clearance for Al-Mustapha. I personally tasted of the madness, of the wickedness and deprivations that Gen Abacha and Al-Mustapha subjected Nigerians to, when I was incarcerated in solitary confinement at the Directorate of Military Intelligence, Apapa, for nine months without trial. The judgment of Hon Just I.N. Auta, that I should be released, was ignored and derided by Al-Mustapha and his co-dictators. But today, he was released from Kirikiri prisons the same day the judgment was delivered.

    “If it is indeed true that there was no evidence before the court linking him with the charges, or there is any doubt in the case of the prosecution, then he is entitled to the liberty of man. But that is not the end of the case at all. There is the judgment of man, judgment of self (conscience) and the judgment of God. It is clear to me that MKO Abiola, Kudirat Abiola and all other martyrs, who gave up their lives and liberties for this present democracy, have not died or laboured in vain.”

    Two members of the Lagos State House of Assembly (LAHA) are also disappointed by the verdict.

    Mr Segun Olulade (ACN-Epe II) said: “As far as I am concerned, the judgment does not speak well of our judicial system, but whatever the judges have said is final.

    “It is now left for the prosecution to go ahead or not.”

    Mr Bisi Yusuf, (ACN-Alimosho I) claimed that Al-Mustapha escaped the judgment of man and not that of God, if he was actually involved in Kudirat’s murder.

    “He only escaped the wrath of man; the judgment of God is there for him if he committed the crime,” he said.

    The Attorney-General of Lagos State, Mr Ade Ipaye, told journalists on Friday evening that he would need to study the judgment before commenting on it.

    He said that the Court of Appeal was yet to issue copies of the judgment.

    Mustapha himself said yesterday that he has forgiven his detractors.

    He said on the Hausa Service of BBC that he remains a Major in the army and should not be dragged into politics.

    “I am still a Major in the Nigerian Army, and cannot be dragged into politics more so that I have been ex communicated for so long, I don’t think of politics; my major preoccupation now is how to reunite with my profession.”

    He alleged “conscious effort by those behind my travail to paint me black before the whole world, but my gratitude goes to God for allowing truthfulness to triumph over falsehood.”

    He said that in the last 14 years, he was kept in solitary confinement for five years and three months and was subsequently detained in about 32 facilities across the country.

    Moments after his release on Friday, Al-Mustapha visited Pastor T.B. Joshua of the Synagogue Church, Ikotun, a Lagos suburb.

    He was on a courtesy visit to the cleric who traced their relationship back to the Abacha years when he was arrested and detained for nine days on the strength of a petition sent to the Chairman of the NDLEA against his ministry.

    Mustapha declined to answer reporters’ questions on his mission although he posed for a photograph with his host.

    Joshua said: “I was arrested for investigation and it was later discovered that it was a tissue of lies. I spent nine days with them for investigation and they found the whole thing to be a fabrication. From there, I was taken to Aso Rock to see the president. It was there that I met Mustapha.

    “I was able to reveal to them who I am by telling them what was to come as a prophet. One of those things I mentioned to them, and to Mustapha in particular, was what he went through, though he did not believe me then. That was why when it came to pass, I was the first person he remembered. I told him that he would spend several years in prison and would be finally released which no one else had ever told him.

    “That is why you see him coming here as his first port of call. Where there is no vision, the people perish.”

     

  • Afenifere urges govt to compensate Boko Haram’s victims

    The Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, has urged the Federal Government to compensate military and civilian victims of the Boko Haram insurgents.

    In a statement yesterday in Lagos by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr ‘Yinka Odumakin, the group gave reasons for asking the government to compensate the victims of the insurgents.

    The statement faulted a statement allegedly made by the chairman of the Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution on Security Challenges in the North, Taminu Turaki, that the victims would not be compensated.

    It reads: “The attention of Afenifere has been drawn to a statement credited to the chairman of Presidential Committee on Dialogue and Peaceful Resolution on Security Challenges in the North, Taminu Turaki, that there would be no compensation for the victims of Boko Haram insurgency.

    “Turaki, who spoke at a gathering of Muslim leaders at the national conference organised by the umbrella body of Muslims in the North, the Jama’atul Nasir Islam (JNI), was quoted to have said: ‘Government cannot pay compensation… It will compensate military personnel that were affected by this insurgency… Government will not have the capacity to give compensation because the number of victims involved in the insurgency incidents.’ We are at a loss as to what message the committee chairman is putting across…”

     

  • Afenifere’s strange bedfellows

    Afenifere’s strange bedfellows

    SIR: I was alarmed but later bemused when I read about Afenifere’s press conference in the media recently. Seated with Afenifere’s chieftains were Senator Iyiola Omisore and Yinka Odumakin. Odumakin was the spokesperson of the group of the group that broke away from Afenifere. What then has happened to honour?

    Afenifere was established in 1951 by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, and his associates. Since then, it remained the rallying point for the progressives in the South-west. Since 1999 when the current democratic dispensation took its root, things took a new dimension with real disciples of Awolowo trying to align themselves together to pursue the authentic Awo’s vision in governance.

    It was during this process that Senator Omisore came to the fold, especially when the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was being formed and he became deputy governor of Osun State.

    Due to obvious differences and discordant tune of the political music at that time, it was clear to all that Omisore did not belong to the fold. Things began to fall apart in the party and in the leadership of the Osun State government leading to his impeachment as Deputy Governor. Since then, Omisore has left the AD to pitch his tent with the PDP. His party deployed all resources at its disposal to fight Awo’s once united political family with intent of total annihilation. This culminated in the gruesome murder of Chief Bola Ige and the annihilation of the AD in the South-west with Bola Tinubu of Lagos State the only man standing.

    Afenifere has since unravelled and the various leaders have joined different political parties. While some are still in the ACN, some have joined PDP while many of them are with Labour Party. It is curious therefore to see Omisore nesting comfortably with Afenifere. Has Afenifere become Afenifere-PDP? Let them tell us so that we can know where they stand. What they are up to and what scheme they may be plotting is yet to be known but Omisore has his eyes on Osun State governorship election next year. Are they Omisore’s friends and part of his campaign group? Time will tell.

    Omisore had surreptitiously crept into the rank of the Afenifere group again the way he did in 1999. One wonders why the group allowed its ranks to be broken and became so vulnerable to open its doors to another era of political terrorism that characterized Omisore‘s earlier romance with the group in 1999. We know that the group has suffered very serious infiltration from the opposition which has led to its being factionalised.

    It is nevertheless a suicide mission for these factions to allow further balkanization by allowing Omisore into its fold. This romance obviously is like a political cancer that should not be allowed to fester. Anything to the contrary can only constitute a death sentence to the peace and tranquility being enjoyed in the region.

    • Kunle Omideyi,

    Surulere, Lagos

     

  • Afenifere not party to UPN resuscitation, says Fasoranti

    Afenifere not party to UPN resuscitation, says Fasoranti

    The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has said it was not involved in the move by the Oodua peoples Congress (OPC) founder, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, to resuscitate the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN). The group recalled that Fasehun was not a member of the party when it existed in the Second Republic.

    Afenifere also reiterated its objection to amnesty for the members of the Boko Haram sect. The group lamented that, although the nation had devoted a substantial proportion of the budget to security, safety of lives and property has not been guaranteed.

    Afenifere Leader Pa Reuben Fasoranti told reporters in Lagos that amnesty for the dreadful sect may not resolve the security situation, urging the government to realise that it is wrong to reward criminals with money for killing and maiming.

    Accompanied by Chief Supo Sonibare,Chief Olu Falae, Chief Korede Duyile, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, Otunba Iyiola Omisore, Mr. Jimi Agbaje, Akogun Tunde Odanye and Hon. Segun Ojo, the elder statesman said that any solution to Boko Haram insurgency that lacks consideration for the victims of the horrors is inadequate.

    Fasoranti said: “We agree that granting amnesty to the Niger Delta militants is in order. But we find it hard to defend the monumental abuse going on, especially among the elite managers of the scheme and are disturbed as to whether the scheme will bring lasting peace, given episodic restlessness still being demonstrated. yet, we have created a set of emergency billionaires from the amnesty while the conditions in the creeks remain virtually what they were.

    “It is with this at the back of our mind that we have been skeptical over the so-called amnesty for the Boko Haram, which is a much more dangerous group than the Niger Delta insurgents who were known and demands were clear”.

    Fasoranti warned that “it would be a tragedy, if we embark on another money sharing spree in the name of amnesty with all the blood that has been shed”. He added: “Granting amnesty to dare-devil, blood thirsty insurgents whose identities and grievances are yet to be properly ascertained is prosperous, offensive to commonsense and retrogresive in its entire ramifications. Our stand is that any decision on Boko Haram should be holistic. We should not just be talking of the insurgents, but also their victims and causes of this menace, with a view to ensuring it doesn’t happen again and again”.

    The Afenifere chieftain put the Jonathan Administration on the weighing scale, pointing out that it has failed in the critical areas of security, anti-corruption crusade, threats of subsidy removal, and job creation. On fuel subsidy, Fasoranti said that the Federal Government owed the people an explanation about the collapse of the refineries and the misapplication of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

    Fasoranti cautioned against perceiving the next general elections as a bloody war, advising the unpatriotic politicians to desist from heating up the polity, ahead of the 2015 polls.

    Falae, the former Secretary to the Federal Government, noted the move by Fasehun to re-float the UPN. He said Afenifere is not the architect of the move by the medical doctor who was never a member of the proscribed party led by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    He said: “Afenifere will support a political party that shares the same progressive ideals with it is the next elections”.

    Also at the press conference were Chief Rahman Owokoniran, Hon. Leke Mabinuori, Bayo Fajemilua, Prince Lanre Omisore, Chief Kole Omololu and Mr. Alufa.