Sahara Reporters
Leader of the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, has reacted to an allegation made by a former Interim Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, in his book, My Participations.
Akande, a former Governor of Osun State, noted that the National Leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu built a house for Adebanjo in Lekki, Lagos.
Adebanjo has however denied the allegation in a press statement on Thursday, a week after the launch of the book, saying he only responded to set the records straight as there had been pressure on him not to reply a “fool”.
The property in question is at Plot 25, Ayo Adebanjo Close, Off Adebayo Doherty Street, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos State.
The statement read, “About a week ago, last Thursday, 7 December to be exact at the presentation of the book ‘MY PARTICIPATION’ by Chief Bisi Akande, it was said that Chief Bisi Akande stated in the book that I brought pressure on Bola Tinubu to build the house for me.
“But since Bola Tinubu himself was present at the presentation, I expect him within a few days to refute such a malicious falsehood about me emanating from his Man Friday.
“I hold this view because Bola Tinubu just some 3 years ago on the occasion of the presentation of my autobiography ‘SAYING IT AS IT IS’ that for my incorruptibility and strength of character, he Bola Tinubu would not have been Governor of Lagos State in 1999. What then could he be demanding from me after his two-term governorship to make me pressurize him to build a house for me when I did not get a naira from him before he became the governor?
“There has been a lot of pressure on me not to react to Chief Bisi Akande’s tantrums, he is a neophyte, a beneficiary of a struggle he never took part in. I have been urged to keep to the adage not to ‘Answer a fool less you reduce yourself to his level’, but there is also an adage that says, ‘Answer a fool less he thinks he is wise’. A lot has been said in the press and the social media to demolish tantrums.
“But I owe a duty to myself and to put the record straight for posterity about the big lie that Bola Tinubu built my house in Lekki for me. I, therefore, deny categorically that my house at Lekki was built with my resources through the sale of 3 developed properties, loan from GTBank and the sale of undeveloped landed property given me by my late leader Chief Obafemi Awolowo of blessed memory.
“The details are as follows: A 4 bedroom duplex with 2 bedroom flat enclosed with 2 undeveloped plots at plot 4, block 14, Nuru Oniwo Street, Aguda Surulere, Lagos State, this is where I was living before moving to Lekki. The house was commissioned in 1972 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. A wing of the duplex was once occupied by a staff of the security outfit then known as ‘special branch’ headed then by the late Alhaji M.D. Yussuf who later became Inspector General of Police when General Olusegun Obasanjo was the Head of State.
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