17th March, 2015
Jamiu Yisa
The Oodua Peoples’ Congress, OPC, has lambasted the Gani Adams faction of the group’s show of shame on Ikorodu Road, Lagos, southwest Nigeria, on Monday.
The OPC accused Adams of betraying the group and the Yoruba people, describing him as a dubious and failed project.
Gani Adams’ faction of the OPC, accompanied by members of the Goodluck Jonathan Campaign Organization and some Nollywood members took to the streets in Lagos to demand the removal of the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, ahead of the March 28 presidential elections.
The faction members armed with guns, pocket-knives, machetes, and charms marched from the Lagos-Ibadan expressway through Ikorodu road chanting anti-Jega songs.
They harassed motorists and passers-by while others vandalized campaign posters of candidates of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The anti-Gani Adams faction of the OPC, after a meeting held on Monday and attended by Shina Akinpelu, Monsuru Akande, Sunday Adebayo, Kilanko Oladipupo, Kehinde Ogunyale, and Gbenga Egunlusi amongst others, described the Ikorodu Road mayhem as the highest level of political violence sponsored and funded by certain elements in the Jonathan government.
In its statement, the faction accused Adams of being on “dubious project” and using the pipeline contract from the government as an excuse to recruit people to work for Mr. Jonathan and PDP in the Southwest.
“Gani Adams is acting against Yoruba interest. The compromises he has made amount to selling the Yoruba to the present government for a piece of pipeline contract to line his pocket,” the group said.
“OPC is not about pipeline contracts or any other contracts for that matter. The Yoruba interest is beyond contracts. We seek justice and fairness from the current government,” the group averred.
The group called on Yoruba sons and daughters to join them in condemning Adams and his “anti-democratic tendencies.”
“We must renounce him and remind him he cannot sell the Yoruba race to Jonathan and PDP on the cheap. He also has no authority to speak on behalf of the Yoruba people,” they said.
“We pity those who rely on him to win votes. They will be sorely disappointed. Their investment is a bad one already. We reject today and always any attempt to use our organization and its members for narrow and selfish partisan purposes.
“We must remind them that the Yoruba people cannot be hoodwinked by sweeteners. No one should expect them to kow tow to an individual who is a Lilliputian in the political development and history of the Yoruba nation.”
While renouncing Adams and his activities, the group also renounced other Yoruba sons and daughters who are playing roles inimical to the welfare and interest of the Southwest.
“We call on our people to be vigilant politically at this time. Nigeria needs a new leadership, a new direction and a country that works,” the group stated.
The Coordinator of the Lagos State Office of the Buhari/Osinbajo Presidential Campaign Organisation, James Abiodun Faleke, while reacting to the ugly development, said, “it is expected that Gani Adams would behave in a crude manner because he himself is very crude. It is very unfortunate that Mr President is again beginning to sponsor hooliganism. He should remember that this is how Boko Haram started in the North.
“When we said the Peoples Democratic Party is a party involved in violence, we have been vindicated. Nigerians have been vindicated. Our party, the APC mobilised over 2 million people on the same road on 7th March, no single PDP poster was removed not to talk of vandalising bill boards.
“But today, we have seen that the PDP is ready for violence. We have expected that the police would have made some arrests. People carrying guns in broad daylight and no single arrest has been made? This is very sad.
“This is what Mbu was posted here to come and do. Where is Mbu’s conscience and dignity in all of these? The hoodlums even went as far as shooting into the office of our senatorial candidate, Solomon Olamilekan. They shot sporadically into his office at Adeniyi Jones. This is the second time in two months his office has been attacked.
APC National Publicity Secretary, Lai Mohammed, said the protest was in line with the N9bn allegedly given to the OPC and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, by Jonathan to disrupt the elections.
Mohammed wondered why the OPC embarked on such a march less than four days after Adams and other OPC leaders met with Jonathan at the State House, Marina.
“As we said earlier, Jonathan has bribed ethnic militia groups with N9bn to ensure that the polls were scuttled. The OPC protest was funded by Jonathan and this is part of the grand plot we spoke about,” he stated.
The Publicity Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the APC, Joe Igbokwe, said in a statement that it was unfortunate that Jonathan was using “armed thugs” to intimidate Lagosians.
Igbokwe wondered why APC adverts were vandalised since the protest was against Jega.
“No one should be surprised at what is happening today because it reflects the last acts of a dying junta desperate to use every means to remain in power.
“It is obvious that Jonathan and the PDP have given up hence the open and bizarre sponsorship, bribery and inducement to militia groups through generous dollar bribes and contract bazaars, for the purpose of creating enormous crisis and confusion in a bid to scuttle the coming elections.
“We see the present actions of OPC as spurred by the multi-billion naira contract that was recently given to their leaders by a desperate Jonathan as bribery to secure such hatchet jobs they are doing at present.
“Nigerians should note that the action of the hired mercenaries like OPC on the streets of Lagos, where they are visiting destruction on APC campaign materials, is an act of war.”
Executive Chairman, Committee For The Protection Of Peoples Mandate (CPPM), Nelson Ekujumi described President Jonathan’s ambition as a threat to democracy, peace and national security.