TheCable

Reuben Fasoranti, former leader of Afenifere, says the group never endorsed Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of Labour Party.

Fasoranti said this on Tuesday during an interview with Roving Reporters.

Over the weekend, Fasoranti gave his blessing to Bola Tinubu, flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

This came weeks after Ayo Adebanjo, one of the founding fathers of Afenifere, had endorsed Peter Obi.

According to Fasoranti, Adebanjo lacks the power to endorse candidates.

“I am still the leader of Afenifere. Afenifere has not endorsed Obi, we are endorsing Jagaban (Bola Tinubu) for the presidency,” he said.

“As you can see, the trend, the approval and the acceptability. You could see what happened when Tinubu came to meet me in Akure. 

“The media carried the whole thing. Adebanjo does not have the capacity to warn me not to welcome Tinubu. Can he do that successfully?

“What happened was that Adebanjo took a stand and I took a stand. I didn’t call him and he didn’t call me. We never spoke about the (Tinubu’s) visit. As you can see, Jagaban is accepted and we approve of him. Obi has no standing in our mind at all.”

Meanwhile, Adebanjo said his reason for endorsing Obi was based on the principle of equity and federal character as enshrined in Nigeria’s constitution.

Adebanjo is of the opinion that since the south-west “has produced a president and currently sits as VP; the south-south has spent a total of six years in the presidency, but the Igbo people of the south-east have never tasted presidency in Nigeria”.

“Now that the power is due back in the south, equity demands that it be ceded to the Igbo,” he said.