By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
The leader of Oodua Progressives Care Initiative (OPCI), Dr. Marouf Olarewaju has said the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) is an illegal organisation which government should ban forthwith.
Dr. Olanrewaju, who was once a topnotch of OPC before pulling out of the body said this in an interview with newsmen in Ilorin, Kwara State insisting that though, the OPC had been on ground for quite a while, it has never registered with the government.
He, however, said that his own organisation, OPCI, was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and given a license and guidelines to operate with.
According to him, it is a known fact that OPC, under the leadership of Chief Gani Adams, the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land, was never registered by government pointing out that at a time, the government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo once banned OPC and that till date, the ban had not been lifted by successive regimes, a pointer to the fact that the body remains an illegal organisation.
The OPC he said, is as illegal by the provisions of the law as the Independent People of Biafra (IPOB), the ISWAN and others like them who were not registered in the country yet, remain the thorn in flesh of the nation.
Asked to speak on the pan-Yoruba nature of OPC and Aare Gani Adams, Chief Olarewaju said the activities of the group and Chief Adams of late in particular, had shown that both the group and the Aare Ona Kankafo were at variance with the general interests of the Yoruba nation. Rather, it is all about material and monetary benefits.
According to him, The Aare Ona Kakanfo was reported to have openly thrown his support for Dr. Peter Obi of the Labour Party, LP, against President Ahmed Tinubu in the last general election and up till now, not regretting his action.
Dr. Olanrewaju added that it was reported that of late, the Aare Ona Kakanfo was in the media antagonising the policies of President Tinubu particularly on fuel subsidy and lampooning those who were of the opinion that the Igbo did not support Tinubu in the last elections.
Also, he said Gani Adams twisted history by saying the Igbo supported Late M.K.O Abiola in the 1993 presidential election.
According to him, contrary to the claim, “the people who truncated democracy, moved against the announcement of the victory of M.K.O as well as stopped a well-grounded democracy in 1993 were Igbo.”
“Chief Arthur Nzeribe, an Igbo man floated the Association for Better Nigeria (ABN) and first made Yomi Davies the Secretary but later, Dr. Peter Obi the man now talking about a denied mandate took over the secretary position and held on to the position till their mission of scuttling democracy was accomplished.
“They caused the then military President Ibrahim Babangida to annul the election, denying Abiola his victory.
“Besides, those who sustained the anti-Abiola, anti-democracy agenda under General Sanni Abacha were the likes of Chiefs Uche Chukwumerije, Chris Akpamgbo and some others who were Igbo. They helped the military to deny Abiola his victory in 1993.”
Meanwhile, the OPIC chief who had earlier sent warning signals to groups in the opposition parties allegedly threatening to disrupt the inauguration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Senator Kashim Shettima as President and Vice President respectively to stay off or be ready to be confronted by his Pan-Yoruba group said he congratulated the president for successfully mounting the leadership throne of Nigeria against all odds.
His words: “Tunubu is coming to do Nigeria’s desired governance some people denied Chief M.K.O Abiola from doing. I tell you, more heads will still roll among those in government who had been holding this country by the jugular over the years.
“There is insecurity everywhere. Security is everyone’s job. As a group, we in the OPCI will be advising the government where necessary on what we felt should be done. I implore the present Inspector General of Police, the National Security Adviser and other agencies to beam their searchlights on our porous borders.
“During President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime, illegal aliens were moving freely from neighbouring countries like Chad, Libya, Niger, Libya, Mali and others making insecurity to be on the rise.
“We raised alarm then, gave advice and suggested what we felt should be done. We particularly called on the then President to do something but nothing positive was done. Instead, he only shut the borders in some parts of the country and left others where aliens freely entered the country to wreck havocs, open.
“We were the ones who recommended State Policing which was changed to Community Policing. Whichever way, however, all we want is adequate policing of the country and we want President Tinubu to adequately pay attention to this.”