Afenifere decries Gumi’s visit to Igboho town, siting of naval base in Kano

Says choking absurdities becoming culture

The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has described the visit of the Islamic preacher, Sheik Ahmed Gumi, to Ighoho town and the siting of a Naval Base in Kano as choking absurdities that are becoming unbearable.

Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, said the assertions made by Gumi and Prof. Yusuf Usman in Igboho town in Oyo State and the siting of a naval base in Kano, Kano State, had been described as part of the absurdities taken too far in Nigeria.

According to Ajayi, as Nigerians, both Sheikh Gumi and Usman have the right to visit anywhere in the country and are entitled to freely express themselves.

“But the circumstance of their visit to Igboho and what they said while in the town are not only provocative and inciting, but also a way of mocking the people of the area and the person of Sunday Adeyemo,” Afenifere said.

Afenifere said it took serious exception to Gumi or anyone else from outside Yorubaland coming and declaring the area as belonging to any particular religion.

The spokesman also stated that the allusion made to the cattle grazing in a school compound by Gumi without being disturbed veiled the truth.

He added that the description of Adeyemo as ‘a detainee in Benin Republic by Gumi and Usman in Igboho was a mockery of the self-determination agitator, provocative and uncouth.

The Afenifere spokesman, also alluding to the announcement by Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo, that a naval base is being established in the landlocked city of Kano, said naval bases are normally sited on the seaside for effective service delivery.

He said: “So, of all the cities in the southern part of Nigeria, nowhere was found suitable to locate additional naval base except where ships cannot berth? It is only in Nigeria that such an absurdity can happen. But it is an absurdity carried too far, especially when considered against the background of highly-disproportional military bases that are already in the northern part of the country.”

(The Guardian)