‘He campaigned against Tinubu’ — Afenifere youths ask Ayo Adebanjo to resign

The Yoruba Afenifere Youths Organisation of Nigeria (YAYON) has asked Ayo Adebanjo,  leader of the socio-political group, to resign from his position.

The organisation accused Adebanjo of abandoning the “uncompromising pursuit and defence of the interest of the Yoruba people”.

In a communiqué by Eric Oluwole, national youth leader, YAYON asked Adebanjo to provide “substantial reasons for attacking and maligning” Bola Tinubu, president-elect.

The group condemned the removal of two national officers of Afenifere — Jare Ajayi, the national publicity secretary, and Abagun Kole Omololu, national organising secretary.

“But we noted sadly that Afenifere began to derail from this long-head philosophy as soon as our father, Baba Ayo Adebanjo took up the position of acting leader,” the organisation said.

“He abandoned the uncompromising pursuit and defence of the interest of the Yoruba people for whatever reasons.

“We noted sadly too, that rather than rally the Yoruba people behind their son, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, now the president-elect of Nigeria, to emerge as president of this great country.

“Baba Adebanjo campaigned vigorously against him, and even after his well-deserving and hard-earned victory through a credible presidential election, he still wants the presidency out of Yorubaland.

“We noted for the purpose of clarity that Pa Ayo Adebanjo is not the Leader of Afenifere, but the acting leader authorised by Pa Reuben Fasoranti.

“We make bold to say that the action of making Pa Adebanjo the acting leader is in line with the precedence in our rich history.

“To our dismay and contrary to tradition and history, we discovered that immediately Pa Adebanjo took the mantle of leadership as acting leader of Afenifere, he has been protecting himself as the leader.

“Not only that, from all notes compared with history, he has not been working in accordance with the solemn sacred order, norms, ethics and virtues of Afenifere.

“We will not allow our future to be mortgaged by Pa Ayo Adebanjo. We challenge him to provide us with the substantial reason for attacking and maligning our son of the soil, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the president-elect of Nigeria, despite the conclusion of a free, fair, and credible election devoid of monetisation or rigging, which he won.

“We condemned in totality the gross insubordination of the acting Leader of Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo.

“A vote of no confidence is hereby passed on the acting leader of Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo forthwith and he should stop parading himself as leader/acting leader of Afenifere.”

CRACKS IN AFENIFERE 

Since Adebanjo became the acting leader of Afenifere, it appeared that there has been division in the Yoruba socio-political group.

The stance of Adebanjo-led Afenifere on national issues has always been contrary to the stance of Fasoranti, the immediate leader of the group.

While Afenifere endorsed Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) for the presidential election, Fasoranti backed Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In addition, Fasoranti equally condemned the suspension of Ajayi and Omololu from the group.