A former Secretary of National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, and the Convener of the Coalition of Democrats for Electoral Reforms, CODER, Chief Ayo Opadokun has revealed that some Yoruba leaders betrayed the self-acclaimed winner of the June 12 1993 presidential election, Chief M.K.O Abiola.
He said other serious minded leaders trusted the betrayers and held meetings in their homes and they recorded the meetings and went to Aso Rock.
Fielding questions from Vanguard, the former NADECO scribe said, “Some of them even went beyond the ordinary call of duty.
“We trusted them and held meetings in their homes and they taped the recordings of our meetings and went to Aso Rock. So, there were those ones but it is not the time to talk about things like that.
“But how did they end up? Some who did other things who were even junior to these ones also did not end well. I know at least about three or four of them that are dead now. After betraying us, they pretended to be part of us, we assigned them duties.
“There are quite a number of so-called Yoruba, who are elders who betrayed him.
“During the course of activities, they betrayed us and got something from the system. But what they got didn’t last long. After making the blood money they made, some of them perished.
“I am fortified by the very profound advice by Chief Awolowo in his dying days that ‘in any given situation when you have a choice to make between protecting your personal interests and protecting the community interest, you should always prefer to protect the community interests’.
“He told me quite frankly, I believe it and I found it to be so that if you protect the community interests, in most cases, your own personal interests will be protected.
“But if you protect your personal interest over the community interests, most likely, you will lose your personal interest.”
