Stop insulting Yoruba Obas, PDP tells APC leaders
Chuks Okocha in Abuja and 
Gboyega Akinsanmi in Lagos


Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, Tuesday said some South-west leaders, who endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan under the aegis of Afenifere, had betrayed the public trust of Yoruba.

The governor lamented that the South-west witnessed similar developments during the First and Second Republics, which he said, inspired a Yoruba legendary playwright and musician, the late Chief Hubert Ogunde, to produce a song titled ‘Yoruba Ronu’, which means ‘Yoruba think.’

He said this at a political rally he addressed in Somolu alongside the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode and the party’s Chairman, Chief Oladele Ajomale among others.
At the rally, Fashola explained how some South-west leaders “have betrayed us the Yorubas because of money. The Yorubas need to have a rethink. This election is for freedom and nothing else.”

He added that something similar happened in the past, which he said, inspired the late music and theatre legend to one of his songs “Yoruba Ronu,” lamenting that it appeared some south-west leaders had not really learnt their lessons.

He said the South-west leaders betrayed the Yorubas because of money, saying the money “is blood money. Posterity will judge them for that action,” which he said, could undermine the interest of Yoruba.

On the election, Fashola urged the electorate in the state to police their votes after exercising their civic rights on Saturday contrary to the directive of the Inspector-General of Police (IG), Mr. Suleiman Abba.

He said asking the electorate to stay 300 metres away from the polling units “is like asking one to stay away from the polling units three times the length of a football field. One cannot see whatever is happening.”

He added that those who asked the electorate to stay 300 metres away from the polling units, planned to rig elections, advising them not “to fight with anyone at the polling units. The electoral act says that once the voting is completed in each of the polling units, the electoral officer must count the vote and announce the
result to the residents.

“That is how it is stated in the electoral law. If the residents are not there, who will the electoral officers announce the result of the election to? Stay close to the polling units and do not disrupt the election process.”
However, the Peoples Democratic Party Presidential Campaign Organisation has cautioned the APC leaders to stop insulting Yoruba traditional rulers.

Director of Media and Publicity of the PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, who stated this in a statement yesterday in Abuja, also berated the APC for resorting to “guerilla journalism” through the establishment and operation of illegal Radio Chanji at a secret location outside the country.

He lampooned the APC and its leadership for consistently indulging in all manner of occultism.

Fani Kayode said that these attacks are the consistent verbal attacks by the APC and their leaders on the yoruba traditional rulers and institutions and especially the deep and damaging insults that have been meted out to the traditional rulers and revered elders in the south-western part of our country.

He said,”Our message to the APC leadership is to leave our Obas alone and our warning to them is that if they refuse to do so they will regret it deeply at the polls.

“It all started when they referred to our traditional rulers in the south-west as ‘worshipers of mammon’, meaning that they are cheap and vulgar and that they worship money. The second one was when Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the de facto leader of APC, referred to all the Yoruba Obas as not being decent people with the exception of only three. That means that as far as he is concerned 97 percent of our Obas in Yorubaland are useless and irresponsible people.

“The latest insult that they indulged in was when they labelled our revered traditional rulers as ‘’bribe takers’’. They suggested that our candidate, President Goodluck Jonathan, was giving them bribes and that they were gladly receiving those bribes. The APC continues to insult our traditional rulers and our Obas in the south-west and this, as far as we are concerned, is unacceptable.

“We are not surprised by the pronouncements of people like Tinubu and the APC about our traditional rulers because we know their antecedents. It is clear to us that it is only when someone has a thousand fathers, or when that person does not know who his real father is, that he is ready to insult our traditional rulers in this way.

He expressed concern that the APC wants to use of the radio station known as Radio Change (Radio Chanji in Hausa) to create crises in this country after the election results have been announced.

According the PDP Presidential Campaigns Spokesman, “The opposition has insisted on continuing in what we call ‘’guerrilla journalism’’ by making all kinds of pronouncements and all kinds of false statements from that radio station. The radio station is outside the shores of Nigeria and we believe that we have identified the country from where it has been broadcasting. We will not however disclose which country that is for now. The radio station is operating on medium wave which is completely illegal.”

Fani Kayode said that it is time to let the Nigerian people know that what the APC intends to do is to incite the Nigerian public to violence after they lose the election.

According to him, the APC also intend to use the station to announce false results all over the country, particularly targeting northern Nigeria. It is important that we alert the public about this sinister agenda.

“We urge the Nigerian people not to allow themselves to be used for violence and to ignore every fake result that will be pronounced by this illegal radio station on March 28 and 29.
He said that it is unfortunate that the APC leadership has consistently indulged in all manner of occultism.


Fani kayode who described the APC as a party of cultists, said, “They have used occultism in enslaving the Nigerian people over the last few months. They slaughter cows, goats, ducks and other living things as sacrifices to the devil and they bathe with soap that is made out of human faeces. They consult the stars and they discuss serious national issues with mediums and sorcerers. That is their stock in trade. “They sought to put the whole of Nigerian under a spell of fear for the February 14 election. They invoked all kinds of fetish powers and demonic entities to effect this.

“We are grateful that with the power of the living God Nigeria was delivered from that spell. On February 14, when the D-Day came, that spell was broken and it was all over. After that date the effect of the spell was gone. Since that time Nigerians have become more and more liberated from the evil covenant that the APC sowed for that day and they have been resisting their evil.

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