The Odua People’s Congress (OPC) yesterday got a new national president following the death of its founder and national president, Dr Frederick Fasheun.
The new president, Prince Oshibote Oodua, was announced at Century Hotel, Okota, Lagos, where members of the congress gathered in their numbers to mourn the passage of their former leader.
Dr. Fasheun died at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH in the early hours of Saturday. According to the eldest child of the former OPC leader, Kayode Fasheun, the late OPC national president took ill briefly during the week before he finally passed on.
“He was sick for a short time and was taken to the hospital on Wednesday and discharged on Thursday. But then, we had to take him back, he hadn’t left the hospital for too long before a little relapse so we he had to go back. He was admitted at the ICU. He later became stable and we thought he was going to survive. But around 1.00 am today we got the sad news that he couldn’t make it,†he said.
According to the young Fasheun, the late OPC leader is survived by a wife and six children; five sons and a daughter.
Giving more insight on the emergence of Prince Oshibote as the new national president of the group, Otunba Thomson said,
“ the Oodua People’s Congress, being a militant group has its rules that within the next 24 hours of the demise of its leader, a new leader must emerge and that was what they have done today.
This, coupled with the instruction laid down by Dr. Frederick Fasheun that somebody must succeed him immediately, he had been in consultation with executive members on whom to succeed him and that is what has been done today. They have chosen Prince Oshinbote as Dr. Fasheun’s successor. They appointed him today and he has been shown to members of the sect who are present here today.
Although, Oshibote was not the highest-ranking chieftain of the group, Sunday Sun gathered that his emergence did not come as a major surprise to members of the congress.
The Lagos State Commandant of the group and Chief Security Officer to Dr Fasheun, Adewale Babatunde told Sunday Sun that although the late founder of the group did not publicly announce who should succeed him, he said the choice of Oshibote as Fasheun’s successor was never in doubt.
“Many of us had thought Baba would announce Oshibote as his successor when we traveled to Ile-Ife in 2017 but we didn’t know why he failed to do so. But I guessed Baba did not announce him because the national officers had made Baba OPC life-President, so it won’t sound nice to have a national president side by side with the life-president. But I gathered that Baba left an instruction that Oshibote was in the best position to direct the affairs of OPC,†Babatunde revealed.
The Deputy National President of the congress, Alhaji Wasiu Afolabi in an interview with Sunday Sun said the late Fasheun, prior to his demise, had expressed the desire to have either him or Oshibote has his successor, but he claimed to have declined and suggested that Oshibote succeed him.
“ I do not believe we should scramble over who to succeed Baba if we truly want the progress of the congress. We need somebody capable of steering the affairs of the congress. He had suggested to me before his death that he wanted either Oshibote or me as his successor but I told him I would rather support Oshibote as the new President. Baba is dead now and we have unanimously announced him (Oshibote) as the new national president. I promised to support him,†he said.
The new national president of the congress has promised to move the congress to the next level. Oshibote who lauded the contributions of the late leader of the congress was one of the founding fathers of the group and national leader of the group before his new appointment.
www.sojworld.com (c) December 2, 2018.
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