The embattled acting leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has been removed as leader of the group.
Afenifere leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, who made this known on Wednesday, said members of the group will no longer converge on Isoya Ogbo, Ijebu home of Adebanjo.
According to the elder statesman, the meetings of the organisation will henceforth hold in Akure, the capital of Ondo State.
It was gathered that following the shifting of the meeting venue to the residence of the leader, Adebanjo may have ceased to be the acting leader.
Fasoranti, frontline educator and Second Republic Commissioner for Finance in Ondo State, also reiterated the group’s endorsement of All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
He rejected the insinuations that he was paid to endorse Tinubu, saying that he has been a man of principle all his life.
Fasoranti said those who started meeting at Ogbo after naming Adebanjo as acting leader misunderstood and misinterpreted him.
He lamented that the people shifted the meeting of Afenifere to Adebanjo’s residence because they felt he was becoming senile.
Fasoranti said some people felt he could not comprehend things, adding that the person who said that has regretted it.
However, Fasoranti, said he is not senile, adding “there is no shaking.
”The reason the meeting was shifted was due to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of some people that I was going senile and that I cannot comprehend.
“When I heard that, I reacted and the person saying that regretted it”, Pa Fasoranti stated.
In a viral video of the group’s meeting at his Akure residence, Fasoranti said he will now communicate meeting schedules to Afenifere members after a liaison with the secretary and other leaders on the meeting agenda.
He maintains that most Afenifere chieftains have said they will not go to Ogbo for meetings again.
Following the return of the meeting venue to Akure, many Afenifere chieftains have concluded that Adebanjo has ceased to be an acting leader.
Chief Adebanjo had earlier said the group endorsed Peter Obi as its preferred candidate for the 2023 presidential election.
But while reacting to the claim, Chief Fasoranti said in an interview on an online television on Tuesday that Afenifere has not endorsed Obi.
He also insisted that he remains the leader of the group, as he also dismissed the claim that Adebanjo warned him not to receive the former Lagos governor.
“I’m still the leader of Afenifere. Afenifere has not endorsed Obi, we are endorsing Jagaban (Bola Tinubu) for the presidency,” he said.
