Akande lied about how I built my Lekki house -Adebanjo, Afenifere leader
Leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has dismissed as tissues of lies the allegation by the former interim chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Chief Bisi Akande that he took money from the APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu to buy his Lekki, Lagos house.
Adebanjo who fielded questions on an Arise TV programme on Tuesday said he would address a press conference on Thursday to reveal how he built the Lekki property to demolish the claims Akande made in his recently launched autobiography, My Participations.
The Afenifere leader said he would produce documents to show how many houses he sold to raise the money with which he built the house.
Describing Akande as a political neophyte and pathological liar, Adebanjo said he would also challenge the former Osun governor to explain how he got the money he used to acquire buildings in Nigeria and abroad after leaving office as governor.
“Akande is playing up to Tinubu. Tinubu is his benefactor. When I give the details of my own house, I’ll ask him to give the details of how he built his house in Ila Orangun and all the houses he has in Lagos and abroad. He should tell us the source and that was after he left the office as governor. When he was the acting chairman of APC”.
He said Akande was an apron string of Tinubu and too junior for him to be commenting on the lies he put together in his book.
“I signed his paper to be governor (of Osun State). The condition for him and others to be governor was to restructure the country back to sovereign federalism. That was the basis on which he was elected in 1999 and he reneged on that. All of them, Tinubu, Osoba, himself, but they reneged. Now they have sold out the Yoruba race. They have sold out to Buhari all because they want Tinubu to be president. That is none of my business. But telling lies is what I don’t know.
“And I don’t know how a man like Akande who claims to be a disciple of Awolowo can be taking pride in his participation in getting to power a person (Buhari) whose regime has proved to be a disaster. When all those who supported him initially are now regretting doing so, a sensible man will not say, ‘I’m proud of Buhari’. But that is the type of character Akande is.
“I don’t want to comment further on him because he is too junior to me. The one that concerns me, which may be creating concern in the minds of the people is his allegation about how I built my house.
“Tinubu didn’t give the money to buy my house. I’ll give the details when the journalists come on Thursday. The name of the contractor; the number of houses I sold; including the one in which Carrington was assaulted by Abacha; the one I inherited from my mother, I sold it. I’ll give out all the details for verification.
“Truth is constant. There is nothing to cover up. And when I give my own details, I’ll ask for their own details”.
He said Akande attempted to rewrite history with his book because he is the apron string of Tinubu.
“He is trying to prop up Tinubu as the only champion. This is all about Tinubu. They knew the agreement they had with Buhari. When they saw that Buhari is trying to renege on their agreement, he came out to, trying to say I’m the only one championing your cause. They knew all the evil they are doing. Buhari let them down. They are claiming to be a partner in Buhari’s government; they don’t know what’s going on in the government. Now they are disputing the terms of the agreement. That shows you how sincere their cooperation was ab initio.
“There is no sincerity there. You carried on for more than five years. You’ve not broken out. If you know that is not the agreement. Why are you still there when all the evils are being done to the people of the Southwest? They were killing and raping our people. There was not a word from APC, not a word from Tinubu. Not a word from Akande. All the kidnappings in the West, the killing and the raping. Only Afenifere was shouting about it. Tinubu kept mum.
APC kept mum. And he claims to be the leader of Yoruba. They raided the house of Sunday Igboho without any reason other than he was asking for self-determination. The man’s house was unlawfully invaded at midnight under a constitutional democracy.
They killed people there and destroyed his property. And he took them to a court of competent jurisdiction, which ruled that this man has not committed any offence and that he should be compensated. The man who claimed to be a born again democrat did not obey the court order.
Which other court order has he obeyed? I don’t want to talk about the Buhari/Tinubu/Akande government and the disaster they brought to Nigeria and Yorubaland. The unfortunate thing is that they are so shameless to be saying that they are speaking for the Yoruba race.
They claimed that Buhari has promised to make Tinubu the president after him. I asked him, he wants you to be president and he is supporting Fayemi against you, supporting Amosun, all the people in your party, putting them against you?
“And all the key positions in the APC coalition particularly the security architecture: the police, army, navy, DSS, customs are held by people from the president’s village and you’re a partner in that government?
Anyway, they are fighting among themselves now. They will tear themselves to pieces. And I’ll be looking on”.
The Nigerian Xpress reported that the acting Leader of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Chief Ayo Adebanjo has explained that he fell out with Chief Bisi Akande, former interim national chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC, after Akande and other governors of the Alliance for Democracy ditched the party’s core principle on the conduct of a sovereign national conference that would return the country to a true federalism as practiced in the First Republic.
Adebanjo gave the insight during an interview on the Arise TV Morning Show on Tuesday in reaction to the controversial autobiography, My Participations, recently launched by Akande.
