The Democratic Movement (TDM) has condemned the seeming attempt to denigrate the legacy of Chief Bola Ige by the Chieftain of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo in his recently released autobiography.
The Group in a press release signed by Remi Adebisi and made available to journalists in Lagos, described Ayo Adebanjo’s book as one that contains many spurious and inaccurate information about the person of Chief Bola Ige.
” The book by Chief Ayo Adebanjo is more or less like ‘The Satanic Verses’ by Salman Rushdie. The book is full of lies and many inaccurate information about the person of Chief Bola Ige, and full of crass envy and venom. The book is not only a figment of the imagination of the writer, but lacks substance in its entirety.
TDM added that the truth behind what brought about the demise of Alliance For Democracy, AD, and the disintegration of Afenifere was the handiwork of Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Ijebu Igbo mafia who were threatened by Ige’s popularity at the time.
“It’s so sad that Chief Ayo Adebanjo who claimed to be Chief Bola Ige’s friend while alive would, after his death, embark on a vicious campaign to deconstruct and distort history. Both Afenifere and AD were formed in Chief Bola Ige’s house(based on the direction of Baba Ajasin) and Ige hotel room, respectively. As a matter of fact, Ige was instrumental to Adebanjo’s emergence as a leader in AD. If truly he had that vaunting ambition; he would not have made many of them leaders in a group or a political party he was instrumental to its formation.” It is on record that Chief Bola Ige was elected Deputy Leader of Afenifere, and remained so til his assassination on 23rd December 2001.
“Chief Ayo Adebanjo’s autobiography is purely for self glorification and perhaps a means of showing a perceived grudge and settling a personal vendetta with late Chief Bola Ige, whose records had remained unsurpassed by his contemporaries. It is full of deep seethed prejudice, which Yoruba’s call ‘ilara’. This cognitive decline on the part of Chief Ayo Adebanjo should not be seen as a sign of senility but possibly an early stage of dementia which requires urgent medical attention.”
“TDM is of the opinion that no amount of such spurious claims and livid inaccuracies from any certified saboteur of visions and under-achievers who have not succeeded in anything in their lives will change or erase the achievements of Chief Bola Ige.”
“TDM uses this medium to also pray for the sweet repose of the soul of Ige’s wife, whose 15th Anniversary is today, 10th April 2018. May the glorious unblemished legacies of the Ige’s continue to live on.”