By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The leader of a break-away group from Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, has called on the Federal Government to ban the pan-Yoruba socio cultural group because it is illegal.
President of Oodua Progressives Care Initiative, OPCI, Dr. Maruf Olanrewaju, in an interview with this reporter in Ilorin said that while his own group was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, and given a guideline to operate with, the OPC till date is not.
He averred that the OPC, under the leadership of Chief Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, was never registered by government and that former President Olusegun Obasanjo once banned the group, which even till now had not been unbanned, thereby making it the more, an illegal organisation.
Dr. Olanrewaju, widely known to be a top-notcher in the OPC before he reportedly parted ways to form his own group, said that the OPC is as illegal by the provisions of the law as the Independent Peoples Organisation of Biafra, IPOB, the ISWAN and others like them, that were not registered in the country, yet remain thorns in flesh of the nation.
Asked to speak on the pan-Yoruba nature of the OPC and Aare Gani Adams, Chief Olarewaju said the activities of the group and Chief Adams of late in particular, had shown that both the group and the Aare Ona Kankafo were at variance with the general interests of the Yoruba nation. He said that rather, it is all about material and monetary benefits.
The OPCI President said that the Aare Ona Kakanfo was reported to have openly thrown his support for Dr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, against President Ahmed Tinubu in the last general election and is not up till now, regretting his action.
Dr. Olanrewaju added that it was reported that of late, the Aare Ona Kakanfo was in the media antagonising the policies of President Tinubu, particularly, on fuel subsidy and lampooning those who were of the opinion that the Igbos did not support Tinubu in the last elections. Also, he said Adams twisted history by saying that the Igbos supported late M.K.O Abiola in the 1993 presidential election.
He said, “Contrary to such frivolous claims, the peoole who truncated democracy, moved against the announcement of the victory result of M.K.O, as well as stopping a well grounded democracy in 1993 were Igbos.
“Chief Arthur Nzeribe, an Igbo man floated the Association for Better Nigeria, ABN, and first made Yomi Davies the Secretary, but later, Peter Obi, the man now talking about a denied mandate, took over the secretaryship position and held on to the position till their mission of scuttling democracy was accomplished. They caused the then military President, Ibrahim Babangida, to annul the election, denying Abiola his victory.
“Besides, those who sustained the anti-Abiola, and the anti-democracy agenda under General Sanni Abacha were the likes of Chiefs Uche Chukwumerije, Chris Akpamgbo and some others who were Igbos. They helped the military to deny Abiola his victory in 1993.”
Meanwhile, the OPIC chief, who had earlier sent warning signals to groups in the opposition parties allegedly threatening to disrupt the inauguration of
Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima as President and Vice President respectively, to stay off or be ready to be confronted by his pan-Yoruba group, said that he congratulated the President for successfuly mounted the leadership throne of Nigeria, barring all odds.
He added, “Tinubu is coming to do the Nigeria’s desired governance some people denied Chief M.K.O Abiola from doing. I tell you, more heads will still roll among those in government, who had been holding this country by the jugular over the years.
“There is insecurity everywhere. Security is everyone’s job. As a group, we in the OPCI were giving advice to the government where necessary on what we felt should be done. I implore the present Inspector Genereal of Police, the National Security Adviser and heads of other agencies to beam their searchlights on our porous borders. During the tenure of former President Muhammadu Buhari, illegal aliens were moving freely from neighbouring countries like Chad, Libya, Niger, Libya, Mali and others, making insecurity to be on the rise.
“We raised alarm then, gave advice and suggested what we feel should be done. We particularly called on the then President Buhari to do something but nothing positive was done. Instead, he only shut the borders in some parts of the country and left others, where aliens freely entered the country to wreck havocs, open.
“We were the ones who recommended state policing which was changed to Communiy Policing. Whichever way however, all we want is adequate policing of the country and we want President Tinubu to adequately pay attention to this.”
