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Support for Akinfenwa: Afenifere digs own grave, says
Akande
THOMAS IMONIKHE, Deputy Political
Editor and FUNKE ODUWOLE
FORMER
Governor of Osun State and factional National Chairman of Alliance for Democracy
(AD), Chief Bisi Akande, yesterday said pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation,
Afenifere, had dug its grave by recognising the Mojisoluwa Akinfenwa
faction.
Chief Akande again opened up on the
alleged N126 million contract scam levelled against him, saying he still walks
about a free man as he has not been confronted with any warrant of arrest more
than a month after the Osun authorities so threatened.
Lagos State chairman of AD, Prince Abiodun
Ogunleye, on his part, accused Afenifere of trying to kill AD by taking
sides in the intra-party quarrel and insisted that the party�s national
convention in October would go ahead.
Speaking with Daily Champion after
delivering a lecture titled: "Followership and Governance in Nigeria," organised
by the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Chief Akande
also said he does not yet believe Afenifere has taken sides.
Afenifere�s
acting chairman, Chief Reuben Fasoranti had on Tuesday told newsmen in Akure,
Ondo State that his organisation had thrown its weight behind the Akinfenwa�s
faction.
He said the decision was based on the
conviction that the Akinfenwa-led AD substantially complied with the party�s
constitution before conducting its December 16, 2003 national convention in
Abuja.
The Akande faction had held its parallel
convention at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos same day.
Reacting to the development, however,
Akande said those who are opposed to his leadership of the party �are People�s
Democratic Party (PDP) agents" who were bent on destroying the AD.
"They are digging the grave of
Afenifere, not that of AD," Chief Akande said.
On the alleged contract scam, Chief Akande
said he remained innocent of the allegation and a free man and would continue to
move about unmolested.
Said he: "I am surprised sitting down
here. Since I heard over a month ago that I have been declared wanted by the
police in Osun State nobody has come to me and say I am the police. I want to
arrest you."
"I wrote to the police, is there any
warrant of arrest? I wrote to the magistrate �where is the warrant of arrest?
But the chief judge directed the chief registrar of the state High Court to
write to me that such warrants of arrest never emanated from the judiciary. So,
that is a copy of the letter," he said, alleging that as warrant of arrest might
have been forged.
Delivering the lecture, Akande blamed the
nation�s socio-economic and political woes on the centralisation of powers at
the federal level and called for the emergence of a Sovereign National
Constitutional (SNC).
He said he was opposed to the convocation
of a Sovereign National Conference (SNC) hitherto canvassed by Afenifere
to which he belongs.
"We should try very hard to have a
Sovereign National Conference and which should only be written by different
nationalities themselves and we should make streneous efforts that it is
acceptable to all Nigerians," he said.
Chairman on the occasion, Prof. Kolawole
Ogundowole in his remarks, said the current battle against corruption in the
country must begin from our villages.
Speaking with newsmen in Lagos on the AD
matter, Prince Ogunleye accused Afenifere of trying to kill the party and
insisted that the national convention scheduled for October would hold as
planned.
He said the group has not got the capacity
to tell AD who it should adopt as its chairman.
"Let me tell you, the Yoruba-speaking
states are just one of the six zones. So, Afenifere cannot just tell us
to go and pick somebody without recourse to the other zones.
"They had their intention before because
they are acting out a script. They felt they lost control of AD and the best
thing is to get it to extinction as Obasanjo is trying to do," Prince Ogunleye
said.
He noted that Afenifere acted in
bad faith, since the letters of invitation sent to the invitees did not state
that such an issue would be discussed.
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