Sowore faults Afenifere endorsement of Tinubu

Political activist, Omoyele Sowore, has faulted Afenifere for endorsing the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Afenifere elder, Pa Fasoranti, on Sunday endorsed Tinu u at a meeting with Yoruba elders in Akure, Ondo State.

This was despite the party’s leader who Fasoranti handed o er to, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, backing the presidential candidate of the Labour Party Peter Obi.

Reacting on Monday, Sowore said, “Afenifere TEAM ‘A’ & Afenifere ‘B’ ought to know they goofed, they can’t sit in their living rooms and endorse candidates on behalf of South-West, they are too fiercely independent to fall for these crooked endorsements. They’ll always vote their conscience!”

Adebanjo, in a phone chat with PUNCH maintained that he was still backing Obi despite whatever transpired at the Akure meeting.

He said, “In the first place, I was not supposed to be there. In the second place, we have made our position clear. Pa Fasoranti asked me if I was coming, I said if he asked me to come. But tell him what the position of Afenifere is. Once he has done that, I’m not going into any controversy about that.

“Afenifere has taken a stance to support Obi. Any other splinter or rebel group… I’m not going into any controversy about that. I regard that as a diversion. What we are going to do now is see that we succeed at the election.”

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, has said whoever Adebanjo backs for president often loses.

In a tweet on Monday, Keyamo recalled how Adebanjo backed Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 and Atiku Abubakar in 2019 with both men ending up losing the presidential elections.

“Propelled by a long-held animosity against Tinubu, in 2015, the Pa Ayo Adebanjo Afenifere endorsed Jonathan for President. In 2019, they endorsed Atiku. In both cases, they failed. Congrats, Peter Obi on this endorsement,”

When contacted by Daily Independent, Keyamo said he wasn’t referring to Afenifere as a whole but the one led by Ayo Adebanjo.

He said, “What i said was that whoever Ayo Adebanjo’s faction of Afenifere endorses usually fails. I am not saying Afenifere as a whole. I specifically said the Pa Ayo Adebanjo-led Afenifere”.