Tuesday saw a demonstration against Pa Ayo Adebanjo, the acting leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation Afenifere, held in Akure, the capital of Ondo State, under the banner of the Afenifere Yoruba Youth Organisation of Nigeria.
The demonstrators claimed they had passed a vote of no confidence in Adebanjo’s leadership after storming the Akure home of the group’s National Leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti.
They carried placards with various inscriptions, such as ‘Pa Fasoranti, pls revoke the mandate you gave Pa Adebanjo now;’ ‘Our vote of no confidence stands;’ ‘Afenifere must be restructured now;’ ‘Pa Fasoranti, please rescue Afenifere;’ ‘Ayo Adebanjo must go;’ ‘Pa Ayo Adebanjo: time to step aside from Afenifere.’
Speaking, the demonstrators’ leader, Eric Oluwole, declared that the group believed Fasoranti to be the true national head of the Afenifere and demanded that Adebanjo immediately relinquish his position as interim leader.
He said, “We cannot allow one leader to mortgage our future. We cannot continue like this.
“The only person we recognise in this Yoruba nation is our Pa Reuben Fasoranti as the National Leader of Afenifere, and he still remains as the National Leader of Afenifere.
“We, hereby, call on Pa Ayo Adebanjo to step down immediately, and he should stop parading himself as the National Leader of Afenifere. He has been acting and we have the letter because baba (Fasoranti) wrote him a letter then that he should act on behalf of him.
“But now, the whole drama has changed, and the youths are involved now and we want to make sure we are part of the restructuring of Afenifere.
“We can only depend on Baba Reuben Fasoranti as the National Leader to immediately call on him (Adebanjo) to step down immediately. We believe that this protest can still yield a good result but we are going to come back again massively in Yoruba nation.
“What we need is sanity in Afenifere and we believe in Pa Reuben Fasoranti’s leadership.
“Recently he said that our own father (Fasoranti) cannot talk to him and we believe that he is not the almighty God of Yoruba nation and the universe. We still believe that we are youths to talk to him. But if he is unable to listen, we know what to do.
“We are not threatening him. What we are saying is that he should step down in the interest of Afenifere. We want peace and we want Baba Reuben Fasoranti to take over.”
In a swift reaction, Adebanjo disowned the youths, saying they were not known in the Afenifere.
“I don’t know them and I have repeatedly said I don’t know their father. I don’t know their parents. They are only encouraging them to be talking. “
I have told you they don’t exist. I think some people just gathered them and gave them money to make them start talking as if something is happening in Afenifere, “ Adebanjo stated.