OPC President General, Aare Prince OSIBOTE Denounces Impostors Of His Organization

The President General of the mainstream Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Aare Prince OSIBOTE has condemned the activities of desperate impostors who are desirable of identifying themselves with the organization from the backdoor. He wonders why many of them who tried effortlessly to frustrate their late founder and vision-bearer, Dr. Fasehun would today want to celebrate the late icon.

Below is the full text of the press release:
Being s text read by the President of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Aare Prince OSIBOTE during a press conference, held at Century Hotel, Ago Palace Way, Okota, Lagos State on August 28, 2019.

Good morning distinguished gentlemen of the press, esteemed guests and my fellow dedicated OPC members. I welcome you all to this press briefing.

I would like to start by paying special tribute and eulogies to our inimitable founder, father figure and enigma, Dr. Fredrick Iseotan Fasehun. I am proud that as a people, we celebrate this visionary leader, charismatic, quintessential democrat, pathfinder, philanthropist and author everyday of our being. He lives on with his unimpeachable legacies of service to mankind, Spartan lifestyle, erudition and philosophy, coupled with his indelible footprints on ancestral annals and nation building. He was a rare star in the sky of the Yoruba Nation.

A man with a humble beginning, Dr. Fasehun rose to the zenith of every endeavour by a dint of hard work, resilience and devotion. As a student, he showed and twinkled like the little star in the sky.

Aare Prince OSIBOTE -Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) President General

As a politician, Dr Fredrick Fasehun towered above his peers and contemporaries. As a statesman, he never waived nor hesitated to speak the truth to the authorities even at the risk of his life.

As a professional, he carved a niche for himself and demonstrated capacity to break new grounds and set a good example.

As a philanthropist, Dr Fasehun set the precept, touching lives of the high and low; the strong and the weak, the rich and the poor; artisans, traders, farmers, children, students and other proletariats.

As a labour leader, he was totally uncompromising on the welfare and wellbeing of workers. His record in that regard remains unassailable in the public space. As an activist, he was conscientious, steadfast and undiluted in his ideological battle and direction.

In some situation, he had to pay the price in various shades and shapes. As an ideologue, he championed the crusade that the people must take ownership of their common patrimony, dispensed it for the common good of everybody.

As a leader, Dr. Fasehun was neither assuaged nor persuaded by privilege to promote a class culture or elitism; rather, he was detribalized, dispensing favour to the man on the street and taking the battle against injustice to the doorsteps of oppressors, bigots and fascists.

Perhaps, his most striking feature as a Yoruba man was that he was passionate about the pioneering spirit of the Yoruba, their rich cultural heritage, and penchant for industry.

OPC as mustard seed
History was made 25 years ago; Precisely, tomorrow, August 29, 1994 when Dr. Fasehun founded Oodua Peoples Congress. The OPC, founded like the Biblical mustard seed has today grown into an oak tree. He was clear in his vision, mission and how to nurture it to an institution that will outlive generations yet unborn.

Like any good and great institution with well-defined purpose, direction and aim, the OPC had its own share of human frailties; but it rose gingerly to such challenges and remained focused on its primary ideals and goal of articulating, projecting, and defending the interest of the Yoruba Nation in Nigeria and in the Diaspora.

Till date, the OPC under my watch and leadership remains constant, unshaken and unwavering in devious manipulations of the Fifth Columnists, who like serpents, vampires and hyenas are constantly trying to undermine the rights and will of the Yoruba nation.

Interlopers on the prowl
Emphatically, nothing can ever bring down OPC because it is an institution anchored on the Yoruba nation as the pillars. It was conceived in truth, delivered on truth and nurtured by truth. It is an establishment whose ownership is hinged on the people.

The OPC has no room for imposters. The OPC has no place for the feeble minded who will claim to be a servant of the people in the day but would collude with vampires and hyenas in the night to undermine the interest of the Yoruba Nation.

A bunch of interlopers are on the prowl again. They are desperate to reap where they never sowed. Like land grabbers, they are effortlessly trying to deface history books, dishing out tissues of lies from the pit of hell. They are fabricating lies on the story of the birth and dramatis personae behind the OPC.

When Fasehun toiled to found OPC, he was dehumanized and almost killed by agents of the state for insisting on the rights of the Yoruba. Where were these vampires and locusts currently bent on appropriating OPC for selfish and myopic reasons?

While the founder was hounded and caged in Ikoyi prison in a grand design to weaken, damage and break his soul and flesh through solitary confinement; where were these usurpers and traitors? When Dr. Fasehun faced the worst humiliation by a fascist regime that consigned him to the dark alley of the wizards and witches of the Ikoyi cemetery, where were these crooks bent on appropriating vision and legacy bequeathed to the Yoruba and posterity? Why did they stabbed him in the back and tried vainly to destroy his resolve to fight for the people and preserve their integrity?

We have resolved and agreed to take OPC back to the people through a sweeping, well calculated and deliberate restructuring to make it bolster, stronger and better for its primary goal. This resolve should not be taken for granted and perceived as a sign of weakness. That we have resolved to preserve the legacy of cultured behaviour of discipline and the principle of Omoluabi should not be regarded as a sign of lack of capacity, ability and capability to bite where and when necessary.

We remain law-abiding people and not vagabonds and gangsters notorious for subterfuge and intellectual theft and roguery. It is time to say it how it is, having resolved to chase out these vampires and hyenas and maggots desperate to appropriate the OPC, twist history, feed the public with falsehood and lies from the pit of hell because Fasehun is no longer with us in flesh and body.

They have forgotten that the dogged fighter remains with us in spirit. They have easily forgotten that Fasehun only transited and is watching patiently those who would want to come and dance on his earthly grave after they failed to kill the dream that has grown to an institution.

For the purpose of emphasis, I state without equivocation, that nobody can turn, obliterate and twist the history of the formation, journey from the cradle to grace and the real dramatis personae of OPC. OPC is one and united on the cardinal goal and dream of the visioner and founder. OPC is under one structure; it has neither splinter group nor any other leadership structure than I represent and lead.

Any other one is fake, imaginary, imposturous and delusionary. If they desire institutions similar to the status and pedigree of the OPC, let them adopt a different nomenclature and embrace the Spartan lifestyle of Dr. Fasehun and the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo that enabled them to carve a niche for themselves, in place of trying to turn logic on its head. I repeat, we have laid our hands on the plough; we are not going to look back. Those planning to test our will and resolve to stick to the ideals and goals of OPC from inception should quickly have a rethink. They should retrace their steps. They should go back to the gutter where they belong because we will hit the iron when it is hot.

Enough is enough; nobody should taunt the OPC because he is seeking a credible platform to wet his gluttonous appetite and drive.

All serpents and vampires and hyenas must leave OPC alone. If they think they can appropriate OPC because Fasehun is no longer with the Yoruba physical, they better have a rethink.

All available records since the inception of the OPC strongly corroborate the painstaking account given by Dr. Fasehun on the chequered history of the organization. In one of his books titled: “OPC: our history, our mission”, Dr. Fasehun states on pages 13 and 14, “August 29, 1994. Venue was a flat on the first floor of a two-story building. No. 110 Palm Avenue in the Mushin area of Lagos. This rented apartment had housed a company called Health Vouchers. A limited liability company, Health Vouchers had been owned by me. It was in this office that I invited three people---two men and one woman. All three were notable grassroots mobilisers in the area…They bought my idea of an organization to be called the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), dedicated to salvaging our race from the cesspool disgrace into which the annulment of June 12 had collectively cast the children of Ooduduwa.”

The period of mourning of our indefatigable founder will soon be over. Even though he has fully immortalized, the process of broadening the scope of his prestige and honour is at pace.

It bewilders us that a child who did recognize his father while he was alive and does not know the tombstone will want to rise to celebrate him. We must be conscious of the consequences of desecrating the dead.

Nobody can delude the Yoruba people with hypocritical honourary award after such individual and his coterie of jesters had despised, abused and attempted to kill the man and his lofty dream of restoring the dignity of a race famous for valour and setting the pace and records in all human endeavours. Nigerians should discountenance such deceitful honourary gesture. It is another Greek gift.

Thank you for coming. Ooduduwa a gbewa o, ase.
Signed: Prince OSIBOTE