Afenifere, a pan Yoruba socio-cultural organisation on Wednesday endorsed the candidature of former Vice President of Nigeria who is also the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in this Saturday’s presidential election as its candidate for the election. The endorsement took place at a programme christened “Afenifere Town Hall Meeting on Moving Nigeria Forward” held in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
The group led by Chief Reuben Fasoranti said that they had decided to endorse Abubakar because of his resolve to restructure Nigeria.
Eminent Yoruba leaders and elders present at the event, apart from Chief Fasoranti are former Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae, Senator Femi Okunrounmu, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, Mr. Seyi Makinde who represented Abubakar at the event.
Fasoranti while declaring the support of the group for Abubakar said that the essence of the programme was to tell the people of the South West region to vote for Abubakar because he had promised to restructure Nigeria.
He said, “We are here to support the candidate that will implement to the letter, the restructuring of Nigeria as moved in the Ibadan declaration in 2017. We want someone that will restructure Nigeria. We want Nigeria that is restructured. The structuring that we want is the one that will not be manipulated. That is not the kind of restructuring that we want. That is what the Yoruba stand for. We are endorsing Atiku Abubakar of PDP.
Okunrounmu in his remarks said that the group had investigated the candidates contesting the presidential election and discovered that Atiku Abubakar is the best man to do the job.
He said, “This gathering is to let the Yoruba speak in one voice. This is to tell us that this is where the Yoruba are going. We are going to support Atiku Abubakar. We have seen that there are two major contenders, out of the over 70 candidates, but, Atiku Abubakar is the one we will vote for. It is Atiku that can tackle the herdsmen and Boko Haram. Buhari cannot fight them.
Adebanjo while speaking said that the group which has members cut across major political parties in the state is not a PDP group but it decided to support the PDP candidate in the interest of the Yoruba race.
He said, “They cannot take us to the promised land. It is the PDP that can do that. We are not PDP. Our members are from different political parties, but we are endorsing the PDP candidate because of the resolve to implement the restructuring agenda.
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