Tag: Afenifere

  • Fayemi Is eminently qualified, competent to lead Nigeria – Afenifere

    Fayemi Is eminently qualified, competent to lead Nigeria – Afenifere

    A Local Government Chairman in Ekiti State and Publicity Secretary of the Afenifere Renewal Group, Mr Michael Ogungbemi, has declared that the Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has the requisite qualifications and competence to lead Nigeria to a greater height if elected President.

    He described Fayemi as one of the few eggheads within the All Progressives Congress (APC) enclave in the Southwest, who can be trusted with power, having exhibited his mettle thrice as a state governor, federal minister and Chairman of Nigeria’s governors’ Forum.

    Mr Ogungbemi, who is the Chairman of Ajoni Local Council Development Area, made this known on Monday during a chat with newsmen at Iyemero-Ekiti, his country home.

    He said without a scintilla of doubt, Gov. Fayemi had garnered enough of cognate experience in politics to lead Nigerians to greater height of development, prosperity and enviable standard that can usher in all-round transformation that would benefit every citizen, regardless of status.

    Ogungbemi expressed confidence in the governor’s competence, capability, capacity and strong character to lead the country and unite all ethnic groups in such a fashion that can guarantee unity of purpose to be able to defeat all adversaries.

    Ogungbemi said: “As a seasoned and respectable professional, administrator and technocrat in Nigeria and across the world, Dr Fayemi will elevate to a national status the magical “Rescue Mission” he brought to Ekiti in 2010 that had radicalised the land and rejigged the economic, political and social systems in an enigmatic fashion.

    “Dr Fayemi’s experience as a Historian, Political Scientist and War Expert specializing in Civil-Military Relations, are indicative of the fact that he has the requisite knowledge and sound understanding apart from being well informed” to lead the country.

    Tracing Gov. Fayemi’s scholarly contributions to national and global growth, Mr Ogungbemi said: “Some of his research and policy interests include democratization, constitutionalism, security sector governance and regionalism in the global context – an indicator that he had gone through the right democratic tutelage”.

    “With the presidential ticket oscillating to the Southwest in 2023, Ekiti from the Old Ondo Province will produce the next Nigerian President and Fayemi has the advantage of age on his side, Christian background and a liberal Nigerian leader

    “Added to these is the fact that he is an International scholar, respectable researcher, thorough-bred and well respected Nigerian politician with a workable document for the development of Nigeria, known as “Development Agenda for Progressive Nigeria”.

    Ogungbemi noted that Nigeria is in dire need of a young, credible, vibrant, knowledgeable and energetic democratic leader like Dr Fayemi with impressive and sound political and democratic credentials, to provide leadership direction to usher the country into prosperity in 2023.

  • 2023: Why Afenifere will not support Tinubu’s presidential ambition – Adebanjo

    2023: Why Afenifere will not support Tinubu’s presidential ambition – Adebanjo

    Ayo Adebanjo, leader of the Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has given reasons why the group will not support Bola Tinubu or some other Presidential candidates.

    Adebanjo said Afenifere will not support Tinubu or any candidate until the constitution is changed.

    He noted that until the country is restructured, the group won’t queue behind any presidential candidate.

    Addressing journalists in Lagos, Adebanjo, stressed that Tinubu has the right to run for the presidency in 2023.

    Speaking on Tinubu’s presidential ambition, Adebanjo said: “Your man has every right to contest the election, he is not disabled, so what is the big deal about that?

    “We are not contending who is the President now because we don’t believe in the constitution that we have. Until that constitution is changed, then we will talk about where the President will be.

    “We have no candidate now until that constitution is changed because I don’t want to go on an uncharted sea that is the implication now.

    “You must believe in the constitution before you say I want to be a part of it. I am not going to be part of the constitution or election that operates a military constitution. That’s the bone of contention and which President Buhari himself has not disputed. The constitution we have is a military one.”

    Tinubu had on Monday made his presidential ambition public.

    The former governor of Lagos State had informed President Muhammadu Buhari officially of his intention to run for the Presidency.

    He had disclosed his ambition after a meeting with Buhari at the State House, Abuja.

  • Subsidy removal: N350 per litre petrol price will plunge Nigeria into another crisis, Afenifere warns FG

    Subsidy removal: N350 per litre petrol price will plunge Nigeria into another crisis, Afenifere warns FG

    The Federal Government’s plan to remove fuel subsidy, which would make Nigerians buy a litre of petrol do N350 would plunge the country into unimaginable crisis, capable of paralysing socio.-economic and industrial sectors, the Pan Yoruba Socio-political organisation, Afenifere has said.

    Reacting to the development in a press release signed by its national publicity secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, the organisation maintained that “the plan to increase the prices of fuel is “another indication of how insensitive the present administration is as far as the welfare of Nigerians is concerned.”

    According to the release, “the plan by the Federal Government to get a litre of motor fuel to sell for between ₦320 and ₦350 in 2022, if carried out, may plunge the country into an avoidable social, economic and industrial crisis.”

    It reads: “The resultant effect may snowball into a very serious logjam as the ignited labour crises may adversely affect the political trajectory of the country.”

    Besides calling on the government to rescind its decision on the planned price increase, Afenifere said that “Nigerians have reasons to no longer trust the government on the tokens it promises to provide as palliatives to cushion the effect of the price increase. The mistrust is a product of similar promises made in the past but that was not kept accordingly.

    “Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, talked about the reactivation of the four petroleum refineries along with the coming on stream of the ones being built by private investors. Why is government unwilling to wait for the refineries to start full production before removing the phantom fuel subsidy?

    “Fuel subsidy mantra has been on for a long time. It has been proven to be an avenue to siphon public funds. But then, the government should stop using it as an excuse to inflict pain on the people. It should fix the refineries, ensure that they are in full swing production before talking about fuel price of any sort,” Afenifere concluded.

  • Nigeria is on its death throes under Buhari’s watch – Pa Adebanjo

    Nigeria is on its death throes under Buhari’s watch – Pa Adebanjo

    …says national sovereign conference inevitable

    … PIA will evoke a volcano in Niger Delta

    … insisting the Nigerian state must be clearly negotiated

    Frontline elder statesman and leader of the pan Yoruba group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has raised alarm that Nigeria is on its death throes under the watch of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The 93 years old Adebanjo made this assertion in a press conference on Thursday where he outlined all the maladies engulfing Nigeria and the way forward to a better Nigeria.

    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) reports the Afenifere leader in his address insisted that it has become imperative to convoke a national sovereign conference to adequately address all the maladies confronting Nigeria under the Buhari led administration.

    Adebanjo in the briefing touched virtually all the facets of the Nigerian state and pointedly declared that the Petroleum Industry Act, otherwise known as PIA will soon evoke a volcano in the Niger Delta.

    Read full text below:

    FIXING NIGERIA, BEFORE THE FALL..
    BEING THE TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT BY CHIEF AYO ADEBANJO,THE LEADER OF THE AFENIFERE AT WHEAT BAKER HOTEL,IKOYI, LAGOS STATE, *ON THURSDAY 11TH NOVEMBER*, *2021*

    Gentlemen of the Press,

    *In the 93 years of God’s special Grace of my life, over 70 of which*
    *I have relentlessly spent in the*
    *struggle for a united*, *civilised, prosperous and federal Republic of Nigeria, and I have waited for some time in the departure lounge of life, and I owe it to posterity, to speak unalloyed truth to unconscionable powers, and to clarify the position of my people, the Yoruba of the Nigerian state, so that whenever I might be recalled home, it shall be said of me, that I not only did my bit*, *I indeed said my bit, and the position of the Yoruba people and Afenifere, were clearly and succinctly enunciated*.

    In spite of deepening disappointments, the Nigerian Press has stood as, perhaps, the last and only beacon of hope in that
    realisation. I have invited you here today, therefore, as partners in that shared vision so that, through you, President Muhammadu Buhari and other political actors, blinded by ambition, may see the need to fix Nigeria before the imminent eclipse of her horizon.

    Nigeria is dying.

    *To be sure, the Nigerian state that was negotiated before independence in 1960, the one that was birthed and named on the 1st of October 1960, is long dead*.

    It was mortally wounded in January 1966, and was then slaughtered in July of 1966. Its funereal obsequies were held between 1966-1970.

    The Frankenstein that was cobbled together in place of the dead nation that was agreed, has survived this long on the back of repression, lies, illusions, and outright delusions. But Buhari has finally killed it by his endless arrogance, the manifest incompetence, and the vile ethnoreligious agenda, with which he is dangerously strangle the insufferable Frankenstein.

    The Nigeria that was agreed, is one that was deliberately FEDERAL in structure. The Nigeria that was AGREED, was by design, based on a parliamentary system of governance.

    *The Nigeria that was agreed, was one that recognized the rights of the federating regions, to nationhood within the ambit of the FEDERATION that was birthed*

    . The Nigeria that was agreed was not a perfect place, but neither is anything constructed by men, and the proof of its imperfections are embedded in the tragedies of the civil war that buried it.

    I am constrained by the limitations of time to adumbrate, and I shall fast forward to the emergence of Abdusalami and the transition to civilian rule in 1999.

    *It was the position of Afenifere and NADECO, that there existed an urgent need to convene a Sovereign National Conference of the ethnic nationalities that have become known as Nigerians*

    Afenifere’s position has not evolved.

    *We remain convinced that the need for a sovereign national conference is imperative*.

    *THE BASIS OF THE NIGERIAN STATE MUST BE CLEARLY NEGOTIATED*.

    We have heard and read countless ripostes to our considered position, many have pointed to Decree 24 of 1999, the same fraudulent document that is infamously known as the 1999 Constitution, and asserted that there is no need for an SNC, as the country already has a constitution. We disagree most vehemently, and INSIST, that Nigeria is not possessed of any expression of the WILL of the peoples, whose will it presumes to fraudulently appropriate.

    It is instructive to note, that when the Midwestern Region was to be created out of the Western Region, a rigorous process was embarked upon.

    The motion for its creation went through the Western Regional Assembly, and the Federal House of Representatives in Lagos, and the peoples of the proposed region voted for its creation in a plebiscite.

    This only after the fact of its economic viability had been scientifically established.

    This rigorous process birthed the additional region that was created in 1962, and duly established under the 1963 Republican constitution.
    Nigeria is today a Frankenstein with 36 states.

    *How many of these states are viable entities that would have passed the 1962-1963 means testing of the Midwestern Region?*

    By whose will were they created? Whose interests are they serving?

    The Nigeria that has been set up for failure by these evil restructuring is visibly bleeding to death and is in its death throes on Buhari’s watch.

    *The entire country is burning*.

    The Northeast was already aflame before the coming of Buhari, its peoples rendered as pawns in the power games of the northern elite, who allowed Boko haram to fester as the evil powers of the federal government was lost to them, and the insurgents were seen as ethnic champions, indeed, Buhari protested about the onslaught on Boko haram, and for those who might have paid attention, Gumi’s interventions are merely aping what Buhari used to say, before he gained office in 2015.

    But what used to be confined to the northeast, has today become a pan Nigerian problem.

    The terrorists have crossed into the northwest and as they have ravaged the entire region including the president’s home state, kidnapping hundreds of schoolchildren and their teachers, raping and pillaging the land, the Buhari regime has treated them with kids gloves, and have blithely labeled them as bandits, businessmen, vandals, and even recently as Area Boys.

    Train track bombers, who were clearly intent on the derailment of a passenger train, are labeled as vandals in a clear advertisement of the complicity of the Buhari regime in the terrorist led insurgency, ravaging Nigeria.
    In the Middle belt, what were once episodic outbursts of Fulani herdsmen and farmers conflicts, a conflict as old as man, has acquired a most evil dimension.

    The Buhari that stormed the Government House in Ibadan during the administration of Late Alhaji Lam Adesina, is the one established inside Aso Rock, and the extreme nepotism of the man, his unbridled Islamist irredentism, are not only intact, they are unfettered by any pretense at presidential leadership.

    *“Be your brother’s keepers” was Buhari’s response to the slaughter in the Benue debacle, and “give up your land in order to live” was the spokesman’s recommendation to the victims*.

    In the southeast, in the lands of the Igbo people, Gen. Buhari has been most indecorous with his words, but his actions are even worse than his words, and he has effectively lost control of the East.

    The Anambra elections are instructive on several fronts, and I shall return to the subject soon enough, but the facts of the restiveness of the East, is not a fact that might be said to be either in issue, or in dispute, and yes, this is without having factored in the existence of pockets of Fulani terrorists, in parts of Igboland.

    The South-South has been up in arms for a while, and the Niger Delta is essentially a war zone.

    These are the realities of the Niger Delta, where the wealth being evilly dissipated around the length of Nigeria originates, but where all of the Nigerian deprivations are curated.

    The environment is even more violent, rendered so by decades of criminal exploitation of its land and peoples by the Nigerian state, and just as volatile as the hydrocarbons that are being taken from its bowels.

    The Niger Delta is a volcano waiting to erupt, and the PIA is poised to ignite it.

    *The southwest, home to the Yoruba people and all men and women of goodwill, whom we have always welcomed, and who have made our lands their homes, have never had it so bad*

    . Our hospitality has been violently abused, our generosity of spirit, taken for granted, and the security of lives and properties wickedly undermined.

    Bands of Fulani terrorists are in our forests and farms, they rape, rob, kidnap, and TERRORIZE the people.

    They bear arms brazenly and they act above the law, and when our people respond in self protection, they are victimized by the Nigerian police and the army, which have acted to establish presidential complicity.

    I have pondered Chief Awolowo’s words in his 1981 public letter to Alhaji Shagari, and I have found a part to be metaphysically intriguing, even though it has only served to deepen my alarm, such that I believe that I owe it to posterity to place my fears on the record; “the ship of state is fast approaching a huge rock and, unless you, as the chief helmsman, quickly rise to the occasion and courageously steer the ship away from its present course, it shall hit the rock, and the inescapable consequence will be an unspeakable disaster such as is rare in the annals of man”.

    Buhari was to be that disastrous rock a few months after the warning.

    The problem with the rock this time, is that the rock is the helmsman of the ship, and he would appear to be DELIBERATELY AND INTENTIONALLY steering the ship to its END.

    The Nigeria cobbled together by Decree 24, of 1999, yes, you get it.

    *FRAUDULENTLY known as 1999 Constitution*, is built on several lies, and the preservation of these lies, are predicated on several more lies. Buhari, is unilaterally imposing another lie, on top of the original lies, and these lies, are what have assured the death of Nigeria.

    *The Fulani Islamist agenda of the Buhari regime has found accommodation for each and every one of the public rebuttals of the lies of Nigeria*.

    Confronted with repeated questions about the identity of the sponsors of terrorism, that were discovered by the intelligence services of one of the Gulf Arab countries, and the fact of the convictions of several Nigerian citizens by that country, the Buhari regime, was unequivocal in showing where its preferences and loyalties are;

    “Naming and shaming of suspects is not embarked upon as a policy by the federal Government out of sheer respect for the constitutional rights of Nigerians relating to presumption of innocence.” Abubakar Malami SAN, AGF.

    But it is curious to note, that the same government, is quick to rush to the media, to declare the identities of those that it has declared to be the sponsors of Sunday Igboho, and Nnamdi Kanu., and the greatest victories of the Buhari regime, in its incestuous relationship with corruption, has been won in the media.

    The speed with which it labels voices of dissent as terrorists, whilst ignoring and outrightly colluding with self declared terrorists, renders the Buharist regime a proven accomplice to the terrorist network that is destroying the country.
    Commodore Olawunmi is on record as saying that the security services had submitted a report to General Buhari since 2017, and that a list of the names of the major sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria is one of the several pieces of information in that file.

    He went further to affirm, that several of these positively identified terrorists and terrorist sponsors, are today sitting in the Buharist government at the highest level, and many more are serving senators and governors.

    The fact of Buhari’s terrorists sympathies are too glaring to require any proof beyond the demand that a man should believe the evidence of his own senses.

    The Wall Street Journal in an exclusive piece, REVEALED THAT THE NIGERIAN MILITARY HAS been dealing with terrorists, and in the particular instance, BOUGHT BACK from the terrorists, an ANTI AIRCRAFT GUN, that the terrorists had captured from a unit of the army, because the presence of the piece in the hands of the terrorists, was a direct risk to Buhari himself, who was apparently scheduled for an appointment in his hometown.

    If they knew the location of the terrorists to exchange guns for cash, they most definitely could have bombed the terrorists, instead of paying them off, but how do you bomb “businessmen” “bandits” “vandals”?

    The terrorists are called several names but are rarely called what they are.

    Welcome to the land of REPENTANT BANDITS AND VANDALS.

    THE COUNTRY WITH THE MOST SUCCESSFUL DERADICALIZATION in the world.

    I shall not waste any more time to establish the facts of Buhari’s ethnoreligious bigotry, he has saved everyone the task of doing that, he happily wears his ethnic and religious supremacist uniforms, and has never pretended to be anything else, but the time has come to state to the whole world as follows.

    *We shall be seeking to persuade our people to avoid being lured into a legitimization of Buhari’s ethnoreligious agenda by engaging with the patently fraudulent lies of any elections in 2023, in the absence of a restoration of peace, and a substantial restructuring of a NEGOTIATED Nigeria*.

    *WE ARE NOT ANARCHISTS, WE ARE NOT SESSIONISTS, we are DEMOCRATS*

    . We recognize that there is a democratically elected president in Aso Rock.

    We are not asking for Buhari’s resignation, and since the National Assembly has not seen fit to impeach him, he remains the president of Nigeria until the 27th of May, 2023.

    But it is the considered position of Afenifere that he urgently constitutes a Government Of National Unity, charged with the sole task of seeing to the restructuring of Nigeria, in consultation with the Nigerian peoples.

    The Buhari regime has no plans for any elections in 2023, and this statement is not a difficult proposition to establish, once the parties to the debate, are fully seized, of their faculties.

    Anambra should be useful in ESTABLISHING this obvious fact.
    AS BAD AS THE SECURITY SITUATION IN ANAMBRA MIGHT BE, it is nowhere near as bad as the situation in the NORTHWEST, NORTHEAST, or the MIDDLE-BELT, and the rest of Nigeria is hardly at peace.

    By official accounts, outside of the ones that might be deployed to carry their Oga’s briefcases or to hold umbrellas, the Nigerian Police deployed 34K officers to Anambra for the November 6 elections.

    I am not sure if these are in addition to the ones that were already under the state police command, or if these 34K is the totality of the men.

    But it is important to note that these 34K represents approximately 10% of the entire capacity of the Nigerian police, if we are to accept the official numbers without considering the inherent lies that have been told to accommodate the ghosts.

    It is interesting to note, that for every three persons that voted in the Anambra mockery of democracy, there was a policeman, Civil Defence, or military personnel. THE ELECTION HELD, ONLY BECAUSE IT PLEASED IPOB TO CALL A TRUCE.

    In the face of the facts and realities, the Buhari regime has labeled self determination groups as terrorists, gone to extraordinary lengths to abduct MNK, invaded the home of Sunday Igboho and murdered two innocent men in cold blood, chased the same Igboho into Benin Republic, but rolls out the red carpets for terrorists.

    The same Buhari regime had labeled the just and peaceful demands of Omoyele Sowore’s RevolutionNow Movement as terrorist, and judicially curtailed his freedom.

    It is easy to see through the multiple lies of General Buhari if one is minded to look, but the question is, IS ANYONE LOOKING AT US AGAIN?

    The world would appear to be tired of Nigeria, and the preoccupation of the world is fixed on a containment of the nuisance that we have become, because if the world has any care left for us, how has it found the grace of condonement, acquiescence, and obvious complicity?

    How has the cause of liberty been promoted in Nigeria by the British and the Americans? With ALL of their eyes in the Nigerian skies, what did they see on the 20th of October at Lekki.

    The Western world has found accommodation for evil in Nigeria. But if Harold Smith is to be believed, the ruination of Nigeria by the British is not an accident, it is by design.

    *Let it be heard loud and clear; Afenifere shall be leading the Yoruba nation to demand substantial restructuring, before any FRAUDULENT ELECTIONS might be held in 2023*, and the response of the Buharist regime to these equitable demands for restructuring the country along federalist lines, in order to restore it to its roots and original agreements, shall go a long way in shaping the position of the Yoruba people in the future, but let it be heard loud and clear;

    *NIGERIA IS NOT ONLY NEGOTIABLE, IT IS EVIDENTLY DYING*

    Gen. Yakubu Gowon (rtd) to keep Nigeria one, is it for the Fulani to dominate other ethnic nationalities?

    Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd), Nigeria unity is non-negotiable, for the Yorubas to be under Fulani domination?

    *Your Eminence Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto, Gen. Abdusulami Abubakar (rtd), Bishop Kukah, can we have peace without equity and justice?*

    GOD SAVE NIGERIA
    CHIEF AYO ADEBANJO
    Leader of Afenifere
    Lagos
    11/11/2021

  • Afenifere does not believe in secession – Pa Adebanjo

    Afenifere does not believe in secession – Pa Adebanjo

    The Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, says it does not believe in secession and disintegration of Nigeria but demands true federalism to address the country’s challenges.

    “We are not anarchists; we are not secessionists. We recognise that there is a democratically-elected government, acting leader of the group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, told newsmen in Lagos.

    “However, it is the considered position of Afenifere that the president urgently constitutes a Government of National Unity solely to undertake the restructuring of Nigeria, in consultation with the Nigerian peoples.

    “The issue of restructuring is about our freedom. We are democrats. I don’t want violence. I don’t want the country to break,’’ the 93-year-old Yoruba leader said.

    Adebanjo, who noted that most states of the federation were unviable entities, decried the level of insecurity across the country, which he said a restructured Nigeria would resolve.

    The Yoruba leader also called for a sovereign national conference on restructuring and said that the country must be returned to the 1960 Independence Constitution before the 2023 general elections.

    “The Nigeria that was agreed is one that was deliberately federal in structure. The Nigeria that was agreed was by design, based on a parliamentary system of government.

    “The Nigeria that was agreed was one that recognised the rights of the federating regions to nationhood within the ambit of the federation that was birthed.

    “It was the position of Afenifere and the National Democratic Coalition that there existed an urgent need for a sovereign national conference of ethnic nationalities that have become known as Nigerians.

    “We remain convinced that the need for a sovereign national conference is imperative. The basis of the Nigerian state must be clearly negotiated,’’ he stressed.

    Adebanjo said that there could not be peace in the absence of equality, justice and truth guaranteed by substantial restructuring and true federalism.

    He added that he had spent more than 70 years of his life to relentlessly struggle for a united, civilised and prosperous Nigeria.

    According to him, the Afenifere will support any person who has a clear cut understanding of a restructured Nigeria and sincerely committed to true federalism.

    He said that Afenifere shall be leading the Yoruba nation to demand substantial restructuring before any election could be held in 2023.

    On the on-going National Assembly’s Constitutional amendment, Adebanjo said that he did not believe in any amendments to the 1999 Constitution because Nigerians were not part of its drafting.

  • BREAKING: Yinka Odumakin returns to life as widow announces birth of twins

    BREAKING: Yinka Odumakin returns to life as widow announces birth of twins

    Yinka Odumakin returns, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, the widow of the late spokesperson of Afenifere wrote as she announced the birth of her twins on Sunday.

    TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports Dr Okei-Odumakin announced she was delivered of the twins at a hospital in the United States of America (USA).

    According to a post Okei-Odumakin shared on her Facebook account, she was delivered of bouncing twins – a boy and a girl on Wednesday, October 27, 2021.

    “The mother and the babies are in excellent health condition. The “miracle” birth fulfilled the wishes of the late Odumakin towards the end of his sojourn on earth to have another baby to be named after him,” the post reads.

    TNG reports Dr Okei-Odumakin, got married to late Odumakin in 1997, and they had their first baby girl in 2000 and the second, a boy, in 2003.

    While the girl was named after Joe, the boy was named Abraham after the late Afenifere leader, Pa Abraham Adesanya.

    The twins are coming 18 years after the last childbirth.

    “After he survived a three-day coma in 2020 and a few months before he succumbed to the illness that eventually but unexpectedly claimed his life, YO, as he is fondly called, developed a strong desire for him and his wife to have another baby.

    “Thank God Joe did not dither or procrastinate as she took in just about the time YO took ill and never recovered.

    “It was good news that Joe conceived but YO never got to hear the news of his wishes coming to pass as he did not make it out of the ventilator.

    “He had, however, prophetically left words concerning what the baby or babies should be called if his wishes materialised.

    “YO was so accurate in his predictions that they could be twins (and their sex) that he gave the names of the babies and told his wife how he would raise them.

    “While many may interpret this to mean that YO had premonition about his death, it was only a strong desire expressed by him to have babies that he would dot over and who would possibly step into his “aluta” shoes. It’s a dream come true,” Dr Okei-Odumakin narrated.

  • Practice justice, equity you preach at UNGA, Afenifere tells Buhari

    Practice justice, equity you preach at UNGA, Afenifere tells Buhari

    Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Monday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to put into practice what he said about justice, fairness and equity on the floor of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) last Friday.

    Afenifere stated in a statement made available to journalists in Ibadan by its national publicity secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, quoted President Buhari while calling for the reform of the UN as saying: “Without justice, the legitimacy (even efficacy) of our organization is called to question.”

    The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation stressed that President Buhari also called for dialogue between Israel and Palestine to resolve their differences as the skirmish between the duo bordered on “the question of justice, fairness and equity” and that the President also talked about the commitment of his administration to the respect of human rights.

    According to Afenifere, going by President Buhari’s presentation at the UN last Friday, it should be noted that ethnic nationalities and other concerned stakeholders in Nigeria have been calling for dialogue to resolve ‘Nigeria issues’ for long, but the federal government under President Buhari has not only been ignoring them but hounding those calling for such dialogue.

    “It is interesting, perhaps comforting, that the Nigerian authority realises that dialogue is the way to go in resolving knotty issues. It is however hypocrisy of the highest order for this same authority to be prescribing this to foreign authorities while describing those calling for the same thing at home as ‘hate speech makers’ and separatists,” it said.

    Afenifere added that “the reform that Buhari advocated for the United Nations is the same thing those calling for dialogue at home are calling for. Why and how our president considered reform and dialogue as necessary at the global level but consider same as anathema in Nigeria beats one’s imagination. It is called Reform at the global level and Restructuring at home.”

    On internal security in Nigeria, Afenifere asserted that the reality on ground belies the president’s claim, saying, ” the president, in his speech, had given the impression that terrorists have more or less surrendered to the Nigerian Army.”

    “We, as Afenifere, commend the heroic efforts of the Nigerian Army but it is a fact that activities of terrorists appear to be more expanding rather than receding, going by the submission of the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Farouq, that over 330,000 Nigerian refugees are languishing in neighbouring countries due to insurgency and armed banditry in the North East and North West as well as Kaduna State Governor El Rufai that advocated for the military to be decentralized. “

  • Afenifere to FG: Give us state police, restructure Nigeria before 2023

    Afenifere to FG: Give us state police, restructure Nigeria before 2023

    Socio-cultural Yoruba group, Afenifere has asked the Federal Government to immediately approve state police to enable states to protect themselves as acts of terrorism, kidnapping, herders/farmers clashes is crippling Nigeria.

    According to the group, restructuring of the country remains the only way to fix Nigeria, and urged the government to restructure before the general elections in 2023.

    The demands were made by Afenifere in a communique issued at the end of a meeting presided over by its leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo in Sanya-Ogbo, Ijebu Ode.

    It said, “In view of the fact that Nigeria nation is fast moving into the precipice, there is the need by the federal government to urgently put a halt to various acts of terrorism, kidnapping, herders/farmers clashes and the like. This, Government can do, by immediately allowing states to have their own police.

    ” In fact, the security apparatus should be democratised down to the local level. Every community must be at alert to realise that they must defend themselves from bandits who seem to have declared war on Nigeria.”

    “We insist that this restructuring should be done before the next elections in the country.”

    The communique signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi also blasted the influx of foreigners into Nigeria using the tag of ‘commercial motorcycle riders’.

    The group claimed these foreigners have worsened the security situation and called on indigenous communities in the country to be on the alert.

    “Afenifere notes with serious concern the unprecedented security problems accentuated by the influx of people even from outside Nigeria. Some of them are disguising as Okada riders. We call on the government and security agencies to put a halt to the unbridled influx of people with questionable intentions. Terrorism and related vices including kidnapping are now so worrisome that in some cases, our people in places like Yewa, Ogun State, Oke Ogun in Oyo State, etc are forced to be relocating into the Benin Republic and other West African countries. Urgent actions must be taken to guarantee the security of these people and to put a stop to what is causing them agonies.”

     

    “It is a known fact that Afenifere strongly stands by the southern governors in their resolution on anti-grazing laws. We commend the steps taken by the governors of the South-West states on the establishment of security networks like Amotekun. We urge them to continue to forge ahead.”

    “We note with concern the illegal mining activities going on in various parts of our land, especially by non-indigenes. In many cases, the manner of this activity is not only jeopardising the economic and agricultural activities of our people in these areas, the security of the people is also being seriously threatened”, Afenifere said.

  • How Buhari’s ‘failure’ led to Igboho’s prominence, agitation – Afenifere leader

    How Buhari’s ‘failure’ led to Igboho’s prominence, agitation – Afenifere leader

    Leader of Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has said embattled Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho rose to prominence on the back of President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure at protecting lives and properties.

    Adebanjo spoke on Thursday on a monitored Arise TV programme. According to the Afenifere leader, no help was rendered when Fulani people were raping, killing and kidnapping in Igboho’s area.

    He pointed out that Igboho’s uncle who had returned from America to establish a farm also fell victim to the atrocities committed in the area.

    He said this made the rights activist rise in retaliation.

    “It is because of the failure of Buhari to protect lives and property in his area,” Adebanjo said.

    “The Fulani people there are raping, kidnapping, and depriving the farmers of their farmland. They killed his uncle who came all the way from America to establish a farm. They destroyed the farm and killed him.

    “They kidnapped the monarch in the area, the children and raped the women.

    “He rose in retaliation because neither the federal nor the state government came to their aid to arrest or stop the culprit.

    “That is the action that caused the reaction of Igboho.”

    Adebanjo added that Igboho was not referring to all Fulani when he issued an ultimatum that required killer herdsmen to vacate the South-West.

    TheNewsGuru.com, TNG reports that Adebanjo’s reaction is coming days after authorities in the Republic of Benin arrested Igboho while he was trying to board a plane on his way to Germany after he had been declared wanted by the Department of State Services (DSS).

  • Afenifere reacts to fresh attacks on Sunday Igboho’s residence

    Afenifere reacts to fresh attacks on Sunday Igboho’s residence

    Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, has reacted to the attack on the residence of Yoruba rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Sunday Igboho.

    Acting Leader of the group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo in a statement signed on Thursday by the National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi said the attack was a “sad reminder of what Nigerians went through under the inglorious regime of late General Sani Abacha.”

    The group said further that, “the attack is a sad indicator that we are fast returning to the era of late Sani Abacha when anyone who expressed opinions contrary to government’s position would be fatally attacked.”

    According to Afenifere, the manner of the attack indicated culpability on the part of those in authority.

    “We are forced into this deduction for a number of reasons. Firstly, eyewitness accounts indicated that the vehicles and uniforms of the attackers were that of the security agencies.

    “Secondly, the failure of security agencies to confront the attackers further implicated the government. It was reported that the attack lasted for more than three hours. Igboho’s residence is in a highly-populated area within minutes’ reach to surrounding police stations. That no rescue team came from any of the police units including the DSS office in Ibadan for the several hours that the attack lasted makes it difficult not to believe that the government is complicit in the attack,” the statement read in part.

    Afenifere made reference to how voices that were opposed to the dictatorial tendencies of the Abacha regime were suppressed.

    “We recalled how patriots like General Alani Akinrinade, Pa Abraham Adesanya, Pa Alfred Rewane etc were attacked resulting in the untimely and gruesome murder of Pa Rewane.”

    The pan-Yoruba organization said it is forced to make this deduction because Sunday Igboho is known to be at the forefront of agitations to have the Yoruba nation.

    “What is wrong in canvassing for self-determination so long as such agitation is devoid of violence? The constitution the country is running guarantees the right of every Nigerian to express an opinion and even carry out rallies as long as such is done without violence.

    “To the best of our knowledge, none of the rallies that Sunday Igboho has led in his campaign for the Yoruba nation could be said to be violent nor was he implicated in illegal activities. Why then should he be subjected to the kind of treatment his household received on Thursday morning?”

    The body then maintained that a total stop must be put to the unprovoked attack on innocent citizens in the country.

    The attack on Sunday Igboho’s residence came less than 72 hours to the plan by Igboho and others to hold a rally in Lagos to further canvass for the Yoruba nation this Saturday.

    Two persons were reportedly killed in the attack.