November 25 , 2007

 

PRESS RELEASE

SOUTH WEST GOVERNORS SELLING WEMABOD ESTATES, COCOA
INDUSTRIES

The decapitation of a legacy embarked upon by the South-West Governors continues unabated with the on-going sales of WEMABOD Estates and Cocoa Industries in Ikeja.

Informed Afenifere sources indicated that a Memorandum of understanding was signed on Thursday 22nd November 2007 between Oodua Investment and a company fronting for one of the Governors on the sale of Cocoa Industries, Ikeja. It was also reported that 80% of the cheque issued by the OPIC Plaza based front came from the coffers of the state being presided over by the said Governor.

As this was going on, another deal is being sealed to sell 51% of WEMABOD estate. The curious thing about the sale of the WEMABOD estate is that this company made a profit of over N100m last year alone.

The sale therefore is nothing but sheer profligacy and open display of greed and rapacious grabbing of the Governors unleashed on the Yoruba nation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

It would be recalled that it has been widely reported that their lord and mentor Obasanjo was also busy acquiring assets all over Nigeria in his eight disastrous years as President of Nigeria and is now sending emissaries around to protect his acquisitions.

But it is sad that all the Oodua assets that even military administrators did not consider selling are now being pawned by the so-called elected Governors of Yoruba origin.

Worse still is that none of the Governors has built anything that future wayward Governors may be tempted to sell despite their “mainstream” connections.

That the gains of regionalism are being decapitated by“mainstream” Governors only shows that the whole campaign of taking Yoruba to the centre is nothing but a selfish agenda that brings no good to the vast majority.

Afenifere however calls on the Chairman of Oodua Investment, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi to quit the Board now so that he can save his reputation from being soiled by rapacious political upstarts.

At his age and with his wealth of experience, there is nothing Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi would gain from continued stay on the Board than the ruination of his own name.

We restate our earlier stand that whenever order returns to the Yoruba nation, these grabbing would be revisited and woe betides whoever fiddles with our collective patrimony.


‘Yinka Odumakin
National Publicity Secretary