The founder of the Oodua Peoples Congress, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, has accused the National Coordinator of the group, Gani Adams, of being sponsored to criticise him for accompanying Maj. Hamza Al-Mustapha to Kano.
Al-Mustapha is a former Chief Security Officer to ex-Head of State, Gen. Sani Abacha.
Fasehun said Adams' sponsors were afraid of his acceptance in the North and the mileage it had given his newly formed party, the Unity Party of Nigeria.
OPC leaders in a press statement sent to SUNDAY PUNCH by its National General Secretary, Dare Adesope, and National Publicity Secretary, Sola Edward, warned Adams and others to stop endangering the peace of the Yoruba by casting aspersions on Fasehun.
They said OPC was in support of Fasehun's campaign for the release of Al-Mustapha, who was freed recently by the Court of Appeal over the assassination of Kudirat Abiola, wife of the winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, late Chief MKO Abiola.
They said, "We have the names of Gani's sponsors and paymasters, and if trouble breaks out due to his violent utterances, they will not escape the wrath of Yoruba people. Adams is trying to get undeserved recognition and sympathy for himself, because he has been losing members in droves. It is better for him and his cohorts to stop disparaging Fasehun in the day and coming to prostrate before him at night.
"These self-appointed critics intentionally insinuate that Fasehun collected money from Al-Mustapha to support him."
OPC leaders challenged Adams to conduct a survey among Yoruba dwellers in the North on Fasehun's visit to Kano, adding that the result would prove that by escorting Al-Mustapha to Kano, Fasehun had helped guarantee the safety of lives and property of Yoruba people in the North.
On Adams' criticism of Fasehun's moves to resuscitate the UPN, a Second Republic party founded by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, they said Adams and his paymasters were afraid that Fasehun's visit to Kano had given the UPN political mileage in the North.
Taking exception to Opadokun's claim that Fasehun's relationship with Al-Mustapha amounted to "dining with the devil," the OPC leaders challenged Opadokun to explain what he and other Yoruba leaders went to do in Aso Rock with Abacha's successor, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, the day after MKO Abiola died.
The Punch