Festus Keyamo, spokesman for the All Progressives Congress Campaign Council, claims it would be unjust to link the turmoil roiling the Afenifere leadership and the visit of the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to Pa Reuben Fasoranti.
Two weeks before, Tinubu had paid an official visit to Fasoranti at his home in Akure, the seat of Ondo State, where he obtained the elder statesman’s support.
The former governor of Lagos State’s visit was criticized by Afenifere’s “acting” leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, who claimed it was an intentional attempt to split the group.
Less than 24 hours after Tinubu’s visit, an incensed Adebanjo, who had previously endorsed Peter Obi, the presidential nominee of the Labour Party, airs his grievance on Politics Today, a popular program on Channels Television.
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 claim that the group’s crisis was brought on by his principal’s visit, Keyamo said there was not a shred of truth in the report.
Speaking in an exclusive report with our correspondent, the Minister of State for Labour 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.”
