Peter Obi won Presidential Election – Afenifere; Supports Court action; Backs Iwuanyanwu; Sacks two officers

Apex pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has said that Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate in the February 25, 2023, general election, Mr. Peter Obi, won the election. It is, therefore, in support of the former Anambra State Governor’s decision to challenge the contrary declaration by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Court.

This position, which the organisation said it arrived at “after intensive deliberations on the state of the Nigerian Federation,” is contained in a communique it issued at the end of its meeting at the residence of its leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, at Isanya Ogbo, Ogun State, on Tuesday, March 28, 2023.

The communique, endorsed by Chief Adebanjo, Leader, and Chief Sola Ebiseni, Secretary General, re-asserted the position of Afenifere, “that for equity, fairness, national cohesion and peaceful corporate existence,” the next President of Nigeria should be someone from the southern part of the country, “specifically the South-East.”

Other resolutions of the meeting, include condemnation, “in strong terms,” of the “campaigns of calumny and acts of ethnic violence deployed by some politicians and their hired criminal gangs in several parts of the federation during the gubernatorial election particularly Lagos State where the election was made to appear like an inter-ethnic war between the Yoruba and Igbo which greatly led to voters’ suppression and other forms of deliberate disenfranchisement through brigandage.”

The group threw its weight behind Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, over his statement in Awka, Anambra State, that the Yoruba and Igbo are not at war and joined the Ohanaeze Ndigbo leader in condemning “the shenanigans of some political rascals.”

Afenifere also said it never issued any anti-Iwuanyanwu statement, stressing that after observing “the uncouth activities and unauthorised statements in its name and to the constant denigration of the organisation, by Jare Ajayi, the National Publicity Secretary and Abagun Kole Omololu, the National Organising Secretary,” and “after due consideration of the unending embarrassing conduct of the two officers,” had resolved that “they be and are hereby removed immediately from their respective offices and their membership be suspended sine die pending further decisions after their appearance before and recommendations by the Disciplinary Committee.”

The group equally assured all residents in Yorubaland, indigenes and non-indigenes, “that in accordance with the hallowed Yoruba culture of civilised conduct,” they would enjoy “protection in the conduct of their lawful duties,” and therefore warned “all threats mongers and merchants of violence to desist therefrom.”

The highly respected top organisation of the Yoruba nation further expressed its “belief in the judiciary as an integral part of the democratic process” and said it expects it to prove itself “in the election litigations now pending before it without fear or favour and in accordance with the judicial oaths of its members, in covenant with the Nigerian people.”

It called on the “President and Government of Nigeria to restore the patriotic confidence and hope of the Nigerian people in the continued corporate existence of the federation which will guaranty their safety throughout Nigeria.”

Afenifere also appreciated “the genuine and renewed interests of the international community in the security and democratic health of Nigeria” and urged “that as a prominent member of the global community, the affairs of Nigeria should continue to be of concern to the world.”