Sola Ebiseni, Afenifere Secretary General, noted that what Fasoranti did was a mere blessing and not endorsing the APC presidential candidate.
Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, has denied assertions made in various quarters that one of the chieftains of the group, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, backed the campaign of Bola Tinubu, the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC.
Sola Ebiseni, Afenifere Secretary General, noted that what Fasoranti did was a mere blessing and not endorsing the APC presidential candidate.
The Afenifere’s secretary disclosed this on Tuesday morning while answering questions on the Arise TV show programme.
SaharaReporters had also reported that Fasoranti noted that the group never endorsed the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, for the 2023 presidential election, who was an endorsed candidate of Pa Ayo Adebanjo, the group’s leader.
It was also reported that Adebanjo, who was said to be in an acting capacity for the group, endorsed Obi, as he insisted that it was the turn of the South-East to produce the next President.
Shortly after Adebanjo endorsed Obi, Fasoranti was seen backing Tinubu’s 2023 bid and blessed him.
Commenting on the conflict, Ebiseni said that the meeting, which led to the purported endorsement of Tinubu, was not an Afenifere meeting.
He said, “Was that an endorsement, an Afenifere endorsement? I would have loved you to ask that as the second leg of your question.
“Now, as I told you, the meeting that they held was not an Afenifere meeting. That meeting – the notice of that meeting was issued in the name of a Whatsapp group, “Conscience of Yoruba Nation”.
“The conscience of the Yoruba Nation, so many people are there; you don’t need to be a politician. You see, those who expressed political inclination about this time, they gathered them in the Whatsapp group, and my brother says he is the director general.
“They told people, please, we are going to hold a meeting in respect of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency, and Pa Fasoranti has agreed to host and preside over that meeting; the duration of the meeting will be only from 11pm to 1am. Two hours.
“I told you there was a debate from 29 July 2021 to 27 September 2022 (14 months of debate), compared with two hours of the jamboree. It was not an endorsement; Baba has the power to bless anyone.
“So, many people will still go to Pa Fasoranti for blessing; it does not deter from the decision Afenifere had taken – endorsing Peter Obi.”