Daily Independent Online.
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004.
AD South West chairmen disown Afenifere
By Tolu Olarewaju and Adeyemi Adebanjo,
Lagos
The road to peace in the troubled Alliance for
Democracy (AD) became strewn with obstacles on Sunday as the six South West
state chairmen of the party distanced themselves from the purported endorsement
of Senator Mojiseoluwa Akinfenwa as the party leader by the pan-Yoruba
organisation, Afenifere.
Afenifere had after a reconciliatory meeting held in Akure, Ondo
State, last Tuesday announced its endorsement of Akinfenwa to head the
crisis-ridden party as a way out of the protracted conflict.
But addressing a world press conference on Sunday
after a meeting of the party’s South West states chairmen, the Ekiti
State Chairman, Chief George Akosile, said the meeting condemned the Afenifere declaration and considered it
“as uncalled for in view of the assumed role of Afenifere in the
AD.”
Speaking further, Akosile maintained: “The
meeting noted that being a national party now widely accepted by Nigerians as
the most credible and progressive alternative to the non-performing PDP, the AD
should not be subjected to such a purported declaration, which is extremely
partisan and unhelpful for the resolution of the crisis.”
The party top brass further noted that the meeting of
the 36 states chairmen of the party held on 16 July 2004 in Ikeja had
unanimously resolved that a fresh national convention be held in accordance
with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)-proposed option for
the resolution of the impasse.
For emphasis, the party chairmen hinged their
rejection of Afenifere’s Akure resolution on four main points, including allegation that
the selection of those who attended the meeting was unusually and deliberately
skewed to favour Akinfenwa.
Others include alleged deliberate exclusion of any
leader or representative from Osun State, where the national chairmanship was
zoned to; that the declaration was a culmination of several failed attempts to
impose Akinfenwa and that the declaration lent credence to the suspicion that
some leaders are fuelling the crisis with the intent to destroy the party.
Concluding, the AD stalwarts insisted that they were
going ahead with the planned national convention of the party, expected before
the end of October, which, according to them, is the most positive option in
resolving the crisis.
