Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Aare Gani Adams, on Tuesday, cried out that some Yoruba politicians have been using the “one day” achievement of activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, to malign him and destroy his credentials and legacies.
Adams accused the politicians of using Igboho to vitiate and destroy the reputation he had built as an activist and freedom fighter for the Yoruba nation in the past 28 years by now labelling him “a coward.”
The Are Ona Kakanfo raised the alarm about the plot against him while featuring on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Tuesday.
He said, “On the braveness of Sunday Igboho, some wicked politicians in Yorubaland have stepped in to use him to destroy their enemies and to even call them names. How can somebody call Iba Gani Adams that has been in the trenches for the past 28 years a coward?”
Igboho, who had recently issued a vacation order to the Fulani herdsmen accused of perpetrating crimes ranging from kidnappings, killings, rape to invasion of farmlands with their cattle in Igangan, Ibarapa Local Government Area of Oyo State, had last week enforced the ultimatum when he, along with his supporters, stormed the town.
Violence broke out in the town shortly after Igboho’s visit to Igangan with the Seriki Fulani of Oyo State and his family evicted from the community and their property burnt.
Adams said although Igboho had the genuine interest of the Yoruba people at heart, politicians have infiltrated the struggle to liberate the Yoruba nation to “malign me and dent my image.”
According to the OPC leader, “I started this struggle at the age of 23 years when OPU (Oodua Peoples Union) has not been on ground. We started OPU in 1994 and I risked everything for Yorubaland. I have been to jail for three times. The total of my detention was 17 and a half months. I lost everything I had in this life. I started from the scratch in 2008 and I didn’t surrender because my people have to be liberated.
“How can somebody now come out – Sunday Igboho –and use his braveness of one day to destroy somebody who has been in the struggle for 28 years. There is a more than meets the eye.
“Yoruba always destroy their warrior at the end of the day. About 78 per cent of those that fought for the people, they destroyed them. We know what happened to Abiola. A lot of the people who asked him to declare himself as a president ran away from him when he was arrested. It was just a few people in NADECO that stood by MKO Abiola.”
Adams argued that the struggle to liberate the Yoruba nation must be properly coordinated.
The Are Ona Kakanfo added, “Why should you say I’m a coward by now? I have five children and the whole of my family (members) are still living with Nigerian passports. I am a convener of Oodua Progressives Union.
“Ten years ago, my people in Europe told me to get European Passport; they wanted to do it for me within two years. I told them they will use it against me in the struggle of Nigeria and they will say I can’t fight for them again. So, I rejected it and I and my family (members) are still living with Nigerian passports and still living in the country.”