Group Tackles OPC Over Comment On 10th N’Assembly Leadership Contest

Oodu’a People Frontiers (OPF) has condemned the alleged threats by Oodu’a People’s Congress (OPC) to the North for disagreeing with the National Assembly leadership zoning formula announced by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC).

The OPC had warned northern politicians against blackmailing the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, over the leadership of the incloming National Assembly.

But, speaking in Lagos, the Convener of OPF, Moses Odewale, urged the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to distance himself from those it described as agents of destabilisation operating in various guises and concentrate on governance and the task of nation building with justice and equity for all.

Odewale urged Tinubu not to be trapped by the game OPC was allegedly playing, noting that it would pitch him against his most reliable traditional political allies.

The OPF convener, however, maintained that the threat by the OPC was in no way the representative of the views of the decent Yoruba nation and should not be seen as such.

He described the threats as embarrassing, shameful and exposes the inconsistencies of the OPC and other groups like the Afenifere that pose as representatives of the Yoruba people.

He said: “We condemn with all our might the uncivilised action of OPC that threatens the long standing political friendship that exists between the North and what is today the South-West.

“By making it look like they are protecting their son, President-elect, Tinubu, the OPC has ended up exposing him in particular and the South-West to several political vulnerabilities in the future.

“Whether OPC, Afenifere or any other group from any region wants to believe it or not, available facts and figures prove that the North is majorly responsible for the emergence of Asiwaju as APC flagbearer and to his eventual victory t the polls.

“We cannot forget so quickly that eleven APC governors of Northern Nigerian States stood firmly against all odds and ensured that power moved to the South and to the Southwest in particular which paved way for Tinubu’s emergence.

“There is no disputing the fact that Tinubu’s final victory at the polls was secured by the northern votes, which made up 60 percent of the total votes he got, far and above what he got on the southwest. Facts of history has shown how the North had been consistent with its support for a Yoruba presidency even at the expense of candidates from the North,” Odewale stated.