Festus Keyamo, the spokesman for the All Progressives Congress Campaign Council, says it is unfair to link the visit of the party’s presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, to Pa Reuben Fasoranti, to the crisis rocking the leadership of the Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere.
Tinubu had visited Fasoranti at his home in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, two weeks ago and obtained the elder statesman’s endorsement.
The action was criticised by Afenifere’s acting leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who called the former Lagos State governor’s visit a well-planned attempt to fracture the organisation.
Adebanjo, who had previously endorsed the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, vented his rage on Politics Today, a popular Channels Television show, just 24 hours after Tinubu’s visit.
He said, “Nothing else is going on other than an attempt to split Afenifere, to which I will not be a party. It is a sort of conspiracy among those who want to see Afenifere divided.”
In response to the allegation that his principal’s visit was the cause of the group’s crisis, Keyamo stated that the report contained no truth.
The Minister of State for Labour stated in an exclusive interview with SaharaReporters, said, “The real reason for Afenifere’s wrangling is Pa Adebanjo, who rushed to endorse a candidate without proper consultation in the organisation to which he belongs.”
“The fact that you are made deputy leader does not make you a dictator. I had listened to him say in one of his interviews, ‘That’s not how we do it.’ How do they do it, that one person sits down and takes a profound decision like that without talking to anyone?
“Pa Adebanjo should tell the whole of Nigeria who and with whom he spoke within Afenifere, who gave him the green light and endorsed Obi? It is just bias and sheer hatred for Asiwaju. That’s all. That was exactly what pushed him to make a mistake.”
