Elder statesman and chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has accused some former South West governors, including Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Chief Bisi Akande and Chief Olusegun Osoba, of supporting former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s re-election bid in 2003 out of selfish ambition.
Adebanjo also took a swipe at President Muhammadu Buhari for alleged poor perfromance. “I am disappointed that he has not disappointed me” the Afenifere chieftain said. The elder statesman, who will turn 90 years old on April 10, made the assertions in his autobiography, Telling it as it is, which was presented in Lagos on Tuesday.
In the 233 page book, Adebanjo detailed the political relationship between Obasanjo and a former Governor of the old Oyo State, the late Chief Bola Ige, which allegedly led to the illegal emergence of Ahmed Abdulkadir as the national chairman of the opposition Alliance for Democracy.
He said, “The protem National Chairman of Alliance for Democracy then was Mamman Yusuf, to whom I was the deputy. But because Bola Ige and others knew that Yusuf did not support him, he engineered Ahmed Abdulkadir, sponsored him, and held a convention of the party.
“That was what led to the court action requesting that the Independent National Electoral Commission should not recognise Abdulkadir because the convention was not constitutionally summoned. “The case is still in court until today, undecided. The Abdulkadir that Bola Ige chose as chairman of the illegal convention was never a member of our party. He was put there by Obasanjo to destabilise the AD.
“The governors controlling AD states then Olusegun Osoba, Ogun; Adeniyi Adebayo, Ekiti; Lam Adesina, Oyo; Adebisi Akande, Osun; and Bola Tinubu, Lagos, were with Obasanjofor their selfish interest. The only exception was Chief Adebayo Adefarati of Ondo State.
