Fasoranti, Adebanjo’s Afenifere factions clash over Supreme Court verdict

The Pa Reuben Fasoranti’s faction of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has condemned the Pa Ayo Adebanjo’s group’s position on the recent Supreme Court judgment upholding the victory of President Bola Tinubu in the last presidential election.

The Adebanjo’s faction had on Wednesday met in Ogbo Ijebu, Ogun State and issued a communique vilifying the Supreme Court’s decision upholding Tinubu’s election.

In the communique circulated by the faction’s Secretary General, Chief Sola Ebiseni, the Adebanjo group had said, “Unfortunately, by the Supreme Court’s decision, the electoral reforms achieved through the agitations of Nigerians for quality control through technological devices and the billions of naira spent on the infrastructures in that regards is now wasted.”

However, the Fasoranti group, which backed and endorsed Tinubu ahead of the February 25 presidential election, knocked the Adebanjo group, saying its remarks were not the position of Afenifere.

Recall that the Yoruba group became factionalised in the build-up to the poll with Adebanjo backing the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, on the grounds that the Presidency ought to go to the South-East; while Fasoranti insisted that Tinubu was the best candidate for the job.

In a statement on Thursday by its Organising Secretary, Kole Omololu, the Fasoranti faction said what the other group said was “far from the truth about Afenifere’s leadership position on the matter.”

“Let it be on record that Afenifere leader, Chief Fasoranti, and other Afenifere leaders are not privy to such ignominious press release and did not authorise it and do not subscribe to the seditious act such may portend.

“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,” the Fasoranti faction said.

Omololu noted that Fasoranti had congratulated Tinubu on the election victory and also expressed solidarity with him after the Supreme Court upheld his election.

He said it was therefore, mischievous to have such a “preposterous attack on the judiciary by intemperate elements within the fold, fanning the embers of national discords with political motives, using the name of Afenifere.”

Omololu, however, said Adebanjo was still the acting leader of the group in line with the natural and traditional order of Afenifere and should have, as such, deferred to Fasoranti, on any issue, without reservations.

“To do otherwise is to tread such ignoble path in national discourse as this unfortunate release reveals,” he said.

“The meeting recently held in Ogbo Ijebu, at no point raised or decided on the attack on the judiciary as the statements of the General Secretary seemed to portray. The leaders of Afenifere would like to challenge Chief Ebiseni to offer the world, the true record of deliberations at the said meeting to confirm its concurrence with the communique he so released to the world.

“Afenifere believes that it is time for real governance beyond the politicking that the judiciary has sealed with the Supreme Court judgment. We look forward to good governance from the federal, state and local governments, and are prepared to offer constructive feedback, counsel and criticism in the quest for a better Nigeria, and a prosperous nation with viable federating entities.”