AFENIFERE, a Yoruba socio political Organisation last night endorsed<\/p>\n
President Goodluck Jonathan for second term in office.
\nPublicity Secretary of the Organisation Yinka Odumakin said this in Akure
\nwhile briefing newsmen after a meeting President Jonathan held with the
\nleaders of the Organisation.
\nThe meeting took place at the residence of the National Chairman of the
\nOrganisation, Chief Reuben Fasoranti
\nPresident Jonathan was in the state as part of his state wide presidential
\ncampaign to shore up support for his second term ambition.
\nOdumakin said that the leaders of the organisation decided to give their
\nsupport to the President because he \u201cconvoked the National Conference and
\nis ready to implement the report.
\nOdumakin said the group was convinced about the commitment of the
\npresident to the National Confab and the implementation of the report .
\nAfenifere, he added \u201cbelieved that the confab is the only thing that can
\nliberate the nation.
\nOdumakin said the president informed them at the meeting that Yoruba were
\nthe one that were in the forefront of the clamour for the confab.
\nAlso speaking, Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko said what Afenifere
\ndid was an unequivocal endorsement of the president.
\nDr Mimiko said Afenifere expressed believe in the transformation agenda of
\nthe president describing it as systematic and strategic for the
\ndevelopment of the nation.
\nThe governor who was asked by the president to also speak with newsmen
\nsaid that the organisation believed that the President transformation
\nagenda was not a fluke.
\nAlso speaking Chief Olu Falae corroborated the decision of the
\nOrganisation saying that the president has shown commitment to lead the
\nnation out of slavery.
\nMeanwhile, the organisation at their meeting earlier said that if the
\nIndependent National Electoral Commission INEC goes on to conduct the
\nFebuary 14 general election with almost 30million voters cards yet to
\ndistributed, the result of the election will not be credible.
\nAlso, the Organisation called on Nigerians not to vote for any candidate
\nwho is not in support of the implementation of the National Conference
\nreport.
\nRising from an over four hour meeting in Akure, the Country home of their
\nChairman Chief Reuben Fasoranti, they said that \u201cas at today, over 15
\nmillion voters out of the one collected have not received their cards.
\nIts Publicity secretary Yinka Odumakin said \u201d This is 54 million. There
\nare 14 million voters cards that are yet to arrive the country. If we put
\nthem together it is almost half of the total electorate that are yet to
\ncollect their voter\u2019s cards.
\nOdumakin while reading the Communique said \u201cThe assurance by the INEC
\nchairman that to distribute card day to the election is not reassuring. If
\nyou have failed to do it before now, what is the assurance that he is
\ngoing to do it now?
\n\u201cWe want to warn that any election conducted on the basis of
\ndisenfranchising almost half of the electorate, the outcome will not be
\ncredible or acceptable.
\nAccording to him the \u201cmeeting viewed with seriousness the share
\nincompetence on the part of INEC, the INEC that wanted to create 30, 000
\npolling units few weeks to the election has yet to distribute almost 30
\nmillion voter\u2019s cards.
\n\u201d When you look at the table INEC has given, what they tell us is that in
\neach state, this is the PVC received hiding the total number of registered
\nvoters.
\n\u201cThe constitution says election should hold not earlier than 150 days to
\nhandover date and not later than 30 days. February 14 INEC has chosen, for
\nus may 29 is sacrosanct, there is no controversy over this.
\n\u201d Within those days between February 14 and 30 days to May 29, INEC has a
\nwindow to make sure that most voters are not disenfranchised. If INEC is
\nable to give all registered voters their PVC before February 14, all well
\nand good
\n\u201cOn the 2015 general election, as far as Afenifere is concerned, the
\npresidential election is to decide between two options, freedom or
\nslavery.
\n\u201d We have elected to choose freedom, freedom from bondage, internal
\nenslavement and internal colonialism that holds most Nigerians down under
\nthe bastion of domination and we are convinced that the 2014 national
\nconference report has laid the basis for the proper restructuring of the
\ncountry.
\n\u201cThe most important change that Nigeria desire this time is restructural
\nchange.
\n\u201cThe Change that ignores the restructuring of Nigeria is not a change.
\nMost of the issues that are confronting us, the issue insecurity,
\ncorruption have their link with the faulty constitution that we have and
\nto change the constitution is the most important change that we need.
\n\u201cAlso, we want to warn in Yoruba land that we should be careful of those
\nwho promise change and do not believe in the restructuring of Nigeria and
\nthose who boycotted National Conference and described it as diversion.
\nLeaders that attended the meeting include governor Olusegun Mimiko of ondo
\nState, two former governors of Osun and Ogun state Iyiola Omisore and
\nGbenga Daniel, Chief Ayo Adebanjo,
\nSehinde Arogbofa, Chief Olu Falae, Supo Sonibare amonsgt other
\n\u201cAfenifere believe that election is a democratic contest about party
\nprogramme and not about using terror to frighten them into submission that
\nthe use of terror to demand for the mandate of the people must be
\ndiscouraged not to reward anybody that tries to terrorise them to access
\npower.
\n\u201cThe 2014 national conference has become a campaign issue. Anybody that
\ndid not participate in it or does not believe in it does not love our
\npeople.
\n\u201cThey want to drag them into slavery. With the report of 2014, we believe
\nwe have crossed Jordan, we are yet to get to promise land but we should
\nnot be sent to Egypt.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFENIFERE, a Yoruba socio political Organisation last night endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan for second term in office. Publicity Secretary of the Organisation Yinka Odumakin said this in Akure while briefing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n