Lagos- New acting national leader of pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere Chief Ayo Adebanjo on Tuesday said he would have desired a much younger person to be in charge of the group’s affairs.

The former national leader, Pa Reuben Fasoranti who is 95 years old  stepped down from the position  due to old age.
According to him, the development became necessary because the group needs an improved organisation with more effective approach to combat the challenges facing Yoruba people.

But speaking in a chat with Daily Independent, 92 year-old Adebanjo said he  would have desired a much more younger person to step into Fasoranti’s shoes as the group’s leader, adding that the issue will be looked into in the near future.

“I am not at that meeting where the decision was taken today that I will be the new leader of Afenifere but I agree with them on the decisions taken”.  
“However. I believe they should have chosen a younger person as the new leader. I also agree with those saying it is time for younger generation of leaders to take charge of Afenifere. I believe we will look into that as time goes on”. 
“People will say when a 95 year old stepped down for a 92 year old, what difference does it really make? I will really love a younger person to be in charge”.  

“I don’t have to be the leader to contribute my quota. There is nothing I have been doing now that I can’t still do.

On what he will do differently in his new position as Acting leader of the group, Adebanjo said 
“There is nothing new to add. What we have been doing in Afenifere is what we will keep doing because we are a consistent organisation. Afenifere is a principled organisation. We believe in restructuring of Nigeria and true federalism. We also believe in good governance without corruption” he said.

More than a thousand people are estimated to have joined the rally in Trafalgar Square on Saturday, hurling missiles at police and assaulting officers.

Reports say demonstrators trailed by police paraded banners and lit flares as they walked from Hyde Park along Oxford Street, Chancery Lane, the Embankment and Parliament Square before heading up Whitehall.

Police officers were forced to retreat back to their vans, as protesters threw bottles and cans.

Similar demonstrations took place in Manchester as hundreds of people gathered outside the National Football Museum before marching to Greater Manchester Police’s headquarters claiming lockdown was a “crime”.

There were no reports of any arrests in Manchester, where separate marches by Black Lives Matter protesters and demonstrators against violence towards women also took place.

The protests came as a group of cross-party MPs and peers wrote to Home Secretary Priti Patel to ask her to lift a ban on protests during the COVID-19 lockdown in the wake of confrontations with police at a vigil in south London following the killing of Sarah Everard.

More than 60 MPs and peers signed the letter to the home secretary and warned that allowing the police to criminalise people for protesting is “not acceptable and is arguably not lawful”.

Protesting is not listed as a “reasonable excuse” for leaving home under the government’s coronavirus regulations.

Saturday’s clashes come a week after the Met faced criticism for its handling of a vigil on Clapham Common in memory of Everard.