OODUA People's Congress (OPC) leader Otunba Ganiyu Adams has defended the recent pipeline maintenance contract award he was given by President Goodluck Jonathan saying the Yoruba people deserved it as they are part of Nigeria.

 Last month, President Jonathan awarded the OPC a contract to maintain oil pipelines in southwestern Nigeria as part of a deal with several militant organisations. Widely condemned as an election bribe, the contracts involve vigilante groups taking over security of Nigeria's oil and gas pipelines from the security agencies. 

All Progressives Congress (APC) politicians have criticised the move, although it is not yet clear if General Muhammadu Buhari will revoke the contracts when he assumes office. However, Otunba Adams said those opposed to the contracts are being unfair, adding that APC leader Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in particular is not happy because the deal will give the OPC economic clout. 

Otunba Adams said: "Well, every human being is a political animal as politics is everywhere even in your homes. If you have four children, there is possibility that two of them will support everything the father does while others will pitch their tent with the mother, so that is politics within the family. 

"We gathered from a reliable source that APC as a party, under the instruction of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will not empower Gani Adams and OPC. Their belief is that Gani and OPC are growing and you can only stop him when you starve him of their needs." 

He added that six months to the end of the tenure of Bola Tinubu as Lagos State governor, he asked Dr Fredrick Fasehun, another OPC leader to collapse his structure into the then Action Congress of Nigeria and promised he would provide everything he wanted. However, Dr Fasehun ignored him and there the falling out with Asiwaju Tinubu began. 

"Somebody asked him to contact Gani Adams’ group who has 90% of the men but Tinubu maintained that Gani was stubborn and he would not accept that arrangement. He resolved that the only option was to starve the group of funds, drain their pipe of resources and they will come begging. 

"We realised that somebody who could go to such extent can do anything to suppress you. The truth also is that, there is hardly anything you do without money, just like the Bible says Money answereth all things,” Otunba Adams added. 

According to Otunba Adams, no one cannot continue to enslave him as he and his followers want freedom, so he could not continue to donate OPC resources to somebody who does not want to empower him. Politics He added that about seven to eight months to the election, the president sent some people to him in Lagos on his intention to run and seek his support and after deliberating on it, the OPC agreed to support him.