AFAN Ogun Debunks Claims of Abuja-Imposed Leadership, Labels Claimants as Impostors
The All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Ogun State Chapter, has debunked claims by some individuals purporting to be executives of the association from Abuja, describing them as impostors with no legal or constitutional backing.
Addressing journalists in Abeokuta, the state capital on Friday, the state leadership of AFAN, led by its Chairperson, Ganiyat Adeoye-Kushimo, said the individuals were never members of the Ogun State chapter and could not legitimately claim to represent the association.
According to the association, it had earlier notified the Ogun State Government, the Department of State Services (DSS), the Commissioner of Police, and other relevant agencies that the individuals were impostors after they allegedly wrote to the state government claiming to be AFAN executives from Abuja.
The association maintained that the national body could not impose a leadership on the Ogun State chapter, stressing that its constitution provides that only duly elected representatives from local government chapters are eligible to serve as state executives.
The Association which spoke through its Public Relations Officer, Johnson Oluwarotimi Sogunle, further alleged that the individuals recently used the Ogun State chapter’s logo for what it described as political and selfish purposes in Odeda Local Government Area.
He said “These people were never part of our leadership transition. They were never registered in our offices and were never members of our executive committee. The question is: where did they derive their authority?
‘We want to state that few months ago some people who had never been part of AFAN in Ogun State wrote to the State as being AFAN Executives from Abuja and we made it clear to the State Government, the DSS, the Commissioner of Police etc, that they are impersonators and that Abuja cannot impose leadership on Ogun State AFAN as the Association emanates from farm clusters to local government, commodities, farmers cooperatives etc.
“According to our constitution, only their elected leaders from local governments can become Executives at the State level and this was the established order, with a long history of transition.
The association distanced itself from the action, insisting that it remains a non-political body committed solely to protecting the interests and welfare of farmers across Ogun State.
It added that, in order to avoid unnecessary controversy, it had initially restricted its response to official correspondence with relevant authorities before deciding to publicly clarify its position following the alleged misuse of its identity.
“However, because we wouldn’t for any reason drag our state into unnecessary uproar, we restricted our communication on the matter to correspondences only. However, a few days ago our attention was drawn to the fact that the impersonators used our logo for political and selfish purposes at Ado-Odo, Ota, Ogun State.
“We are here to make it clear and state equivocally to everyone in Ogun State that our Association is for farmers interest and the current Executive Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun CON is our Patron and he has delivered better than his”, he added.
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