15-year rift: Obasanjo, Gani Adams settle dispute

FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo and the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, yesterday, met to reconcile and settled a 15-year-old rift.

The reconciliation was held at the Lekki residence of the Afenifere leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo,

The meeting, held behind a closed door, had in attendance, Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, Basorun Segun Sanni, and Mr. Akin Osuntokun among others

The former president, in 2005, had ordered the arrest and detention of Adams and the late Dr. Frederick Fasehun over the crisis that destroyed properties in parts of Lagos State.

Vanguard gathered that far-reaching decisions on major and critical issues affecting the Yoruba nation were to be the basis of consultation with other leaders in Yoruba land, just as the two leaders resolved to face the challenges of the present and the future, it was

Speaking shortly after the meeting, Aare Adams said the meeting was a robust deliberation with particular interest on the state of the nation, including insecurity, restructuring and unity among others.

I’ve no fight to warrant reconciliation with Adams – Obasanjo

But in his reaction, Chief Obasanjo said that he had no quarrel with Aare Adams that would have warranted reconciliation.

Obasanjo, in a statement by his Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, in Abeokuta, Ogun State, said: “My attention has been drawn to some publications reporting an acclaimed reconciliation between Gani Adams and myself at the residence of Chief Ayo Adebanjo in Lagos.

“It is true that I paid a personal visit to Chief Ayo Adebanjo at his residence in Lekki Phase 1 on December 2, 2020 and I met Gani Adams there.

“I have no quarrel with Gani Adams, but for his past way of life which was not in accord with my standards and principles. I have in the past, both in government and out of government, refused to grant Gani’s request to visit me.

“If at all anybody feels I have a quarrel with him or her that needs reconciliation, such reconciliation will, no doubt, take place in my residence in Abeokuta only.”