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The Odua Peoples Congress (OPC), led by its founder and President, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, yesterday announ-ced the expulsion of Chief Gani Adams ...Fasehun accused some politicians and those in power of sponsoring Adams and his group to destabilise the nation for selfish political ambitions, pointing out that the act is detrimental to the peaceful co-existence, unity and development of the Yoruba race in particular and the country at large. ....."Our country's security situation is at its lowest ebb. What started two years ago with the murder of the Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, has spread like the harmattan fire to claim several eminent lives, including the most recent attacks on governors, politicians, security operatives and innocent citizens," Fasehun said

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THE fog enveloping the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) grew thicker yesterday as the national leadership of the group expelled its factional leader, Gani Adams.

He has been forbidden from operating under the name and banner of the organisation.

Passing the verdict at a press conference held at the Century Hotel Okota, in Lagos, the OPC founder, Dr. Frederick Faseun, said the decision became unavoidable following the alleged refusal of Adams and his gang of terrorists to tread the path of peace, despite the intervention of Yoruba leaders.
Faseun who expressed regret over the last mayhem in Mushin, Lagos during which over fifty houses were reportedly burnt, and more than 20 people died, demanded the setting up of a panel of enquiry to investigate the circumstances leading to the disturbance.

He alleged that Adams has shown traces of a violent self-seeking freedom fighter, since March 1999, when he launched his dissident group.

"Since he broke away, his efforts to gain supremacy for his group has left Yoruba land wondering if, indeed, the OPC is seeking to defend and protect the Yoruba, his revolution being marked with wanton destruction, burning and looting, maiming, murder, rape and robbery, all these perpetrated in Yorubaland, against Yoruba people," Faseun said.

Faseun said on March 1, 1999 when the group announced its break-away, "Adams personally led an assault on the Okota Police Station where the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Mr. Fabiyi was attacked and inflicted with abnormal injuries which he barely survived."

Also, he alleged that the death of Mr. Amao, the Chief Superintendent of Police and DPO of Bariga, was as a result of the order which Adams gave to his men.

Faseun said Gani, who the "Nigerian government promotes as an ambassador of peace," humiliated the Elekole of Ikole Ekiti, Oba Adeyeye in his palace when he (Adams) removed the monarch's pair of glasses with his swagger stick.

He also alleged that it was Adams who gave the "Let the boys strike" order at the reconciliation meeting that was attended by eleven traditional rulers and two ministers, and was presided over by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade. The order led to the murder of Chief Popoola on the palace ground and the kidnap of two members of OPC.

According to Faseun, the incident made the traditional rulers to flee from the mayhem. He said it was by God's grace that he escaped.

He alleged that at another time, he narrowly escaped an assassination plan by a gang led by Olumide Akinola who is now the second-in-command to Adams at the pan-Yoruba congress at Ibadan.

The declaration expelling Adams was followed by a applause and jubilation from the audience.

Fielding questions from journalists, Faseun said that OPC is doing the little it could to rehabilitate the victims of the carnage in Mushin. He called for assistance from the state government to heal the wounds of those who have become destitutes.

According to the OPC national leader, the expulsion of Adams is part of the restructuring needed by the group to make it more alive to its responsibilities of defending the Yoruba race.

He called on the Yoruba race to support the OPC's effort at self-sanitisation, and read the riot act to persons engaging in violent actions against any section of the race.

Adams had last week accused Faseun's faction of responsibility for the violence in Lagos and the crises in OPC.

Adams alleged that what Faseun wants is an unmerited relevance, to be a paid agent of some politicians in their bid to scuttle the smooth course of Yoruba politics.

He said the reason behind Faseun's "loss of recognition and respect from the masses" is engraved in his lust for relevance.

Adams said he could not comment, on why he, and not Faseun was chosen as an ambassador of peace and for which the Faseun group has continuously fomented trouble. "It may interest the public to note that since the recent inauguration of a National Peace Forum by the Federal Government in which Gani Adams was chosen as representative of the OPC, Dr. Faseun and his group for one reason or the other to either attack us, or the innocent member of the public, believing in their warped logic that causing chaos may put a question mark on the criteria used to pick Adams and not Faseun," he said.

In a statement signed by the media relations officer of the OPC, Abiodun Adesina, Adams said he was to attend the inauguration ceremony of the National Peace Forum and the second NPF meeting at Abuja on January 27 and March 3 and 4, 2004, when the Owode Onirin and Mushin skirmishes occurred and thus he had no prior knowledge and involvement in the carnage.

According to him, "the incident at Mushin, and indeed other similar clashes in the recent past, are not coincidental. They are part of a grand plot aimed at rubbishing the name of OPC."

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