Afenifere Disowns Appointment of New General Secretary

By James Sowole

The Ondo State chapter of the pan-Yoruba socio political group, Afenifere, yesterday dissociated itself from the appointment of the new general secretary for the group.

The position of the group was contained in a statement issued at the end of the meeting of the Ondo State chapter of the group, which was presided over by the Chairman, Chief Seinde Arogbofa.

The statement was signed by the Publicity Secretary of the chapter, Mr. Dele Thomas.

A section of the media had last week reported that the socio-political group had appointed Chief Olusola Ebiseni as its general secretary.

The statement read: “The attention of the leadership of the Afenifere in Ondo State has been drawn to the news circulating in some social and conventional media platforms on the purported appointment of a general secretary for the National Afenifere Group.

“After due consultations with the National Leader, Chief R. F. Fasoranti, and the state Chairman, Basorun Seinde Arogbofa, who also doubles as the secretary-general of Afenifere, it has become pertinent and imperative to prevent the society from being misled into believing that a new secretary-general has been appointed.

“For the records, and according to the Afenifere tradition, Arogbofa remains the group’s secretary-general until the Afenifere National Caucus, through its normal process of selection of its officials, announces such an appointment.

“We expect that the next national caucus and general meeting that would traditionally hold in Akure would address this and other related issues.

“We didn’t react earlier because of our great respect for our departed colleague and late National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, who was still lying in the morgue when the news broke out.

“However, the public is hereby informed that there is no such office as the General Secretary in the Afenifere structure but a Secretary-General.

“We wish to further console with the wife of late Yinka Odumakin, Dr. Joe Okei-Odumakin, and the family. We also commiserate with Pa Fasoranti, the leader of Afenifere, and the acting Leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, as well as other leaders and members of the Afenifere at home and abroad on this irreparable loss.”