THE SUN

Alake, Egba chiefs wade in  •Gbenga says it’s fight to finish
•Resign BOT position, Rimi urges ex-president

By Moshood Adebayo, Abeokuta

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Worried about the likely consequence of the current feud between former President Olusegun Obasanjo and his first son Gbenga, traditional rulers from Ogun State have reportedly stepped in, with a view to resolving the face-off.

Gbenga, had in an affidavit he deposed to at a Lagos High Court where he is seeking to annul his marriage, accused his father of having sexual relationship with his wife, Moji.

Leading the pack peacemakers, Sunday Sun learnt, is the influential Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo. Other chiefs from Abeokuta and environs, it was learnt, are also joining hands to reconcile father and son, to stop what Oba Gbadebo reportedly described as “a big embarrassment” not only to the former President alone, but to everything that he represents.

But Gbenga, it would seem, is determined to continue to do battle with his dad, as the peace meeting reportedly called by the respected royal fathers reportedly ended in a deadlock.
In reply to the counter affidavit sworn to by his wife, Gbenga had penultimate week made weighty adultery allegations against Moji, including her alleged sexual relationship with his father, former President Obasanjo.

Rattled by the allegations and worried that much more could come from Gbenga, the Egba chiefs thought it wise to intervene and help preserve whatever is left of the former president’s integrity.
But apparently, their expectations of brokering peace between the duo were dashed last week.
Their concern, according to a reliable source, is not just about Gbenga’s allegation against his father, but what he is capable of saying in future, if the misunderstanding is allowed to linger.

Gbenga, a medical doctor, was said to revealed to the Egba chiefs why he came down hard on his dad in the said affidavit now at the Lagos High Court.
Sources said at the weekend that Gbenga had confided in some family members on what might have been a precursor to his anger with his father.
According to the source, Gbenga alleged that in the eight years that Chief Obasanjo was in power, he never got treated as the president’s son, by his dad.

Rather, he (Gbenga) claims that he got assistance from other persons with whom he has no filial ties.
Indeed, the intervention by some Ogun State royal fathers, it was further learnt, is an attempt to contain the feud, or at least manage the situation lest it gets out of hand.
“This is a big embarrassment to Egbaland that our own son, a chief and a former President of this our great country was accused by his son of having illicit affairs with his wife. The Alake and other concerned chiefs are meeting to see how to wade into the matter so that they don’t continue to wash their dirty linen in the public,” a source at the Oba’s palace told Sunday Sun yesterday.

In the last one week, more than anytime before, Chief Obasanjo has been in the eye of the storm, with some of his political associates asking him to resign his position as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) against the backdrop of the allegations made by his son.
Few days ago, former governor of old Kano State, Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, had called on the former president to throw in the towel as PDP’s BOT Chairman, arguing that he had fallen below the moral standard prescribed for the holder of that position.

Rimi’s statement issued Friday in Kano reads in part: “In view of the recent shocking and scandalous revelation of incest, involving the immediate past President Olusegun Obasanjo, by his own senior son, Dr. Gbenga that his biological father has been sleeping with his wife, Moji, coupled with other equally unwholesome activities surrounding Obasanjo’s performance in government, bordering on seeming corruption and various acts of impropriety, I am calling on the former President to forthwith resign from the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of our party, the Peoples Democratic Party. The Party’s Board of Trustees’ Chairman is supposed to be honourable, responsible, dignified and possessing integrity and impeccable quality of leadership and exemplary character.

“Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s tenure in office as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007 and the recent statement by his own son on his unbecoming behavior are unmistakably indicative of his falling totally below the standard expected of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the biggest political party in Africa, which also happens to be the ruling party in Nigeria.

“I wish also to call on fellow members of the Board of Trustees, to unreservedly reject Obasanjo’s Chairmanship and refuse to attend further meetings of the Board of Trustees until he resigns, so as to avoid the risk of compromising their socio-political and moral high profile in the society and the world at large. Every Board member must feel very strongly, a sense of shame and disgust about the unbecoming behavior of former President Obasanjo.

“PDP members of the Board of Trustees should therefore, individually and collectively, demand the immediate resignation of President Obasanjo as their Chairman and leave him in no doubt, that no responsible member would accept to attend meetings of the Board as long as he remains the one to preside.

“In any case, every member of the party’s Board of Trustees, in particular and the party in general, knows that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo was not properly elected as the Chairman of the Board in the first place. There was no properly organized meeting by the Board of Trustees, at which he was purportedly elected as Chairman…”
Earlier, pioneer chairman of the PDP, Chief Solomon Lar had called on Yoruba leaders to intervene in the rift between the former president and his son.