Gani Adams at the State House, Marina, Lagos State

Gani Adams, one of the leaders of the outlawed Odua Peoples Congress, OPC, now backing President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in western Nigeria, said the group would deliver six million votes to Jonathan in the 28 March election.

Political analysts were quick to fault the OPC’s membership strength as exaggerated, but could not provide the actual figure to contradict Adam’s claim.

The controversy however has been resolved by no less a person than the alternate founder of the group, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, the medical doctor turned political activist and ethnic jingoist and now leader of the Unity Party of Nigeria, a surrogate of the Peoples Democratic Party.

In an interview he granted realnewsmagazine.net, Fasehun gave an insight into the real strength of the group, which has been awarded a multi-billion naira contract to guard the nation’s oil pipelines in the western part of the country.

Fasehun in his response to Realnews question on the multi-million naira contract to provide security for government pipelines, said the group has set aside 40,000 members to do the work.

“We have had 40,000 people set apart for this contract. And do you know the economic effect of a government contract awarded to provide 40,000 people?”, he said.

At the moment, OPC members, when not celebrating the Olokun Festival in Badagry, offer security services to private homes.

Many of the members, who are not feeding fat on the state, like their principal officers, live on security jobs.

Fasehun’s figure, an analyst reason, may offer the best guesstimate for the organisation’s strength, if not exaggerated by him

Update: And today, in an interview in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Gani Adams gave the group’s membership strength as 50,000.