Death threat: OPC denies allegation against Iba Gani Adams

Lagos state Coordinator of the Oodua Peoples Congress,(OPC) Alhaji Mutairu Adesina, has described the former Chief of Staff ( CoS) to Aare Gani Adams, Segun Akanni, as an ingrate with short memory of the past; denying that at no time did Iba Gani Adams, The Aare Onakakanfo of Yoruba Land, planned or issued a death threat against him as Akanni had alleged in an interview granted and published by some online newspapers.

Speaking against the backdrop of the stories published in the social media on the alleged threats to his life, Adesina posited that as the greatest beneficiary of the office of the leader, the National Coordinator of the OPC,the global convener of the Oodua Progressive Union (OPU) and the Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, it is better for Akanni to toe the path of honour rather than making spirited efforts to bite the fingers that had fed him in the past.

He said Akanni had, for the past one and a half year remained lonely and down, thus making desperate efforts to soil the name of his former boss and benefactor,and finding ways to also tarnish the image of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC).

Adesina, however, wondered why Akanni had only resorted to propaganda, blackmailing, and lying against Aare Gani Adams- all in an attempt to seek asylum in Canada. “I have read the stories in the social media and I wondered how he had decided to toe such ignominious path with uncanny ignominy. In the last few weeks, he has been trying to seek asylum in Canada through the back door,and one of his strategies was to go to the media alleging threat to his life.”

“There’s nothing strange about what Segun Akanni did. Liars, they say, always have short memories and people can be so dishonorable that they forget the past so easily. But truth is, we must remind him that the office of Aareonakakanfo of Yorubaland is so sacred and big for such a featherweight to put to disrepute. That is why we have decided not to issue any statement on this, but as a chieftain of the group, I think it is necessary for me to put the record straight on his various lies against our boss”,he said.

“Segun Akanni was a staff of Aare Gani Adams, he was not a member of the National Executive Council,
(NEC) the highest decision making organ of either the OPC or OPU. Whatever benefits he enjoyed then resulted from the office he served. But he later blew the opportunity”. Giving insight into the situation surrounding Akanni’s exit from the Organisation, Adesina said the former CoS was sacked as a result of his dubious and questionable character as a visa racketeer.

“He was relieved of his job when it became open that he had conspired with some powerful people both within and outside the organisation to mortgage the future of the Organisation. Akanni was sacked because he had drifted from the struggle for the emancipation of the Yoruba race- his body and soul is no longer with the group”

While relieving his relationship with Akanni, Adesina said:”I have known him for the past 14 years, and from the outset he was very notorious for telling lies. He was a pathological liar, and that is why it seems funny to me when a pot is desperately calling the kettle black”.

“For Segun Akanni to have launched spurious attacks and words of calumny against our leader, only showed the level of his pettiness and little knowledge of history.Here is an ordinary “road-side engine oil seller” that was brought to the limelight and laterally become somebody leveraging on the generousity of our leader”

Continuing, Adesina said:”It is an irony of fate that such an ingrate could be so blessed to work with Aare Gani Adams, and eventually, reached the peak of his career by becoming the Chief of Staff”. Describing Akanni ‘s allegations as frivolous,Adesina pointed out that the records are available that he served Aare Gani Adams for 14 years, and not 17 years as he had alleged.

“Segun Akanni’s file at the office indicated that he joined the office of the Aare Onakakanfo and Olokun Festival Foundation officially in 2004 as one of the aides. He later became Personal Assistant(PA) in 2007,and the Chief of Staff in 2018. “Within those years, he was sacked in 2012, and recalled again after seven months to continue his job after several appeals from top royal fathers and some eminent personalities.So, he lied about the years of his service for 17 years”

Beyond that, he said he was exited because of his ‘soaring popularity’. “As a prominent member of the OPC in Lagos, all our members and I knew Segun Akanni was an interloper that usually reaps where he does not sow. How on earth can you say you are more popular than your boss who calls the shots. He who pays the pipers calls the tune, so says an idiom. OPC as an organisation, since inception in 1994, revolves around leadership and it is 100 percent loyalty to the leader, nothing short of that”

“So, Segun Akanni’s misplaced popularity naturally came from the unalloyed respect other members of the organisation had for Aare Gani Adams from the outset. And in truth, he couldn’t have been more popular than his boss. “He said he left the organisation without any benefits.His lies are so spurious and almost reaching the rooftops. Akanni upgraded his education,sat for the West African Examination Council (WAEC) examination, did his Diplomas and BSc programme under the tutelage of Aare Gani Adams, and he got married, and started a life of his own under our leader

He is presently a proud owner of a building in Magboro,Ogun State, one edifice in Ile Igbo, his country home in Osun state, with two other houses in Lagos”. “He has also acquired 40 hectares of land in Lagos and Ogun axis. In truth, the ingrate had benefitted from the organisation even more than other leaders of the group. He had traveled (at no cost of his) to over 25 countries across the world”

“His family has also benefitted from the office by traveling to United Kingdom (UK) and United States on two occasions and later relocated to Canada where they are presently residing with residents permit”. “Segun Akanni was a transporter, and dealer, he sells cars at ease. Within the period and even up till the very day he was sacked,he had offered three of his “imported cars” for sale at the front of Aare Gani Adams’ residence in Omole, Lagos”

“So, what kind of benefits can be so enduring than being blessed with all these properties within 14 years? How can somebody be so ungrateful to God for his” little beginning”? He said members of the group had, on three occasions, attacked his house in Magboro. Did he report those attacks to the appropriate authorities? Where are the evidences of those alleged attacks?

“The alleged attack on him at Gbagada in June last year was a “show of shame” because it was premeditated. He did the video recording and uploaded it on his Facebook page as a ploy to buy sympathy and seek asylum in Canada.
Meanwhile,he had failed to mention the names of his attackers. The two coordinators he mentioned – Adegoke Joseph and Yusuf Musa weren’t at the scene of the attack, they have instituted a legal action against him, even as he had left the country for Canada.

“One year after his show of shame, Segun Akanni had celebrated the shameful anniversary of the assault.But at the moment,he is lonely,down and out,and for us in OPC and OPU, his story has remained in the past and like a loser without hope, he is fighting a lost battle and desperately looking for an accomplices”, he said.