The Special Assistant to the President on Special Duties in the Office of the Vice President, Jamiu Abiola, has faulted the invasion of the Oyo State House of Assembly and the Governor’s Office by suspected Yoruba nation agitators.
Abiola also said it was sad that Modupe Onitiri-Abiola, a woman connected with his father, the late Moshood Abiola, could have declared the South-West region a Democratic Republic of Yoruba Nation, stressing that her call for secession was against all that MKO was known for.
He noted that Abiola, the presumed winner of the 1993 presidential election, was prominent for his belief in Nigeria’s unity, saying it convinced the citizenry to give him their votes.
His words: “I have never met her, and I don’t think that she told members of the Abiola family because the family members I spoke to are furious about this. They are shocked. Our family patriarch, Chief Moshood Abiola, was well known for his strong belief in Nigeria’s unity, and that was why it was easy for him to convince Nigerians from all regions to give him their votes.
“Even after his election was annulled by top army generals, mostly from the Northern part of the country, he never spoke about splitting Nigeria. It is sad that a woman bearing his name could have made such a declaration, particularly now that the Nigerian President, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is a Yoruba man who is doing a lot of what my father had wanted to do as Nigeria’s President.
“By doing that, we would be giving her declaration more attention than it deserves. We will ignore her, just like most Nigerians have done. We have a principled matriarch in the person of Adebisi Abiola. She became our matriarch following the deaths of both my stepmother and my actual mother, Alhaja Simbiat Abiola and Alhaja Kudirat Abiola respectively.
“She is a noble woman known to speak the mind of my father even after his death. We also have our eldest sibling, the first child of my father, Lola Edewor Abiola. She is an intelligent woman, accomplished as a politician and technocrat. She can also speak on behalf of the Abiola family.”
