The National President of the Odua Progressive Care Initiative (OPCI), Mallam Maruf Olanrewaju, has blamed lack of sincerity by the leadership as the reason for pulling out of the Odua People’s Congress (OPC).
Olanrewaju disclosed this on Thursday in Ilorin while featuring on the ‘News Keg’, a personality programme organized by the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Kwara Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The President, who noted that members were never carried along in the scheme of things in OPC, asserted that OPCI had achieved for members in the last two years of its existence what OPC did not achieve in its 26 years.
According to him, the leader of the OPC collected a huge amount of money from the Federal Government ahead of the 2015 General Elections without the knowledge of the members.
He said these acts of insincerity, breach of trust and lack of concern for members’ welfare were responsible for the formation of the new Yoruba socio-cultural group.
“Besides, OPC is an illegal organization because it has been proscribed and we cannot continue dragging the legality or otherwise of it with the Federal Government.
“(Olusegun) Obasanjo’s administration has since 2001 proscribed the group.
“But in the case of OPCI, we are duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in Abuja and instructed our coordinators across states to do the same with their respective state governments,” he said.
Olanrewaju explained that membership of the socio-cultural group had spread across 15 states in the country while it had sponsored about 120 members on scholarship to study abroad, among other empowerment initiatives.
On national issues, the OPCI boss commended the border closure directive of the Federal Government, blaming the spate of insecurity in the past on the porosity of the Nigerian border.
He, however, advocated for restructuring of the country, where each state would be entitled to set up its own police.
He cited that even the United States where Nigeria copied its own form of democracy allowed for state and local government police as these would further address insecurity at the local level.
Everything has DR MAROOF OLAREWAJU ABDUL SALAM talk is true, because am the one among of that scholarship at (ISLAMIC INSTUTE OF ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE) even am graduating now, but not that ‘s a lie am with my certificate now, this boss never lie for us anything that we see immediately we tell us, may good news from government or any other