The crisis rocking the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation took a new turn when the leader of the group, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, took a swipe at the acting leader, Ayo Adebanjo, for faulting the verdict of the Supreme Court on President Bola Tinubu’s victory.
While dissociating Afenifere from the communiqué signed by Adebanjo and the Secretary-General of the group, Sola Ebiseni, Fasoranti stated that the mainstream Yoruba organisation had congratulated Tinubu on his victories at the polls and the courts.The Fasoranti’s faction maintained that the discord within Afenifere was being aided by the presence of those it described as “Labour Party elements.”
In a communiqué issued at the end of its monthly regular meeting held at Isanya-Ogbo, Ogun State, the country home of Adebanjo, the verdict of the Supreme Court was said to have ratified the “brigandage” of the February 25, 2023 polls. https://dailypost.ng/2023/11/10/afenifere-blasts-supreme-court-for-affriming-tinubus-election/
In a statement, Fasoranti who frowned at the development, maintained that some persons with ulterior motives were trying to put the foremost organisation into disrepute, which he described as a misadventure.
Fasoranti reiterated that he remained the leader of the group while Adebanjo was the acting leader.
“The attention of the Leader of Afenifere, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, OFR, and other leaders of the apex Yoruba body has been drawn to a communiqué purportedly released in the name of Afenifere by the General Secretary, Chief Sola Ebiseni, where Afenifere is said to fault the Supreme Court judgement upholding Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s election as the President of Nigeria.
“This is far from the truth about Afenifere’s leadership position on the matter. It is merely an unfortunate misadventure of some Labour Party elements within the Afenifere fold who would rather drag the body’s reputation in the mud to achieve whatever sinister and seditious end they might have concocted.
“Let it be on record that the Afenifere leader, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, OFR, and other Afenifere leaders are not privy to such an ignominious press release, did not authorise it, and do not subscribe to the seditious act such may portend.
“We are unequivocal in reiterating that Pa Ayo Adebanjo is the Acting Leader, who, in the natural and traditional order of Afenifere, is expected to defer to his leader, who appointed him, Chief Reuben Fasoranti, OFR, without reservations.
“To do otherwise is to tread such an ignoble path in national discourse, as this unfortunate release reveals.”