A Pan-Yoruba organisation, Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF), has rejected the calls by a group led by Mr. Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho, that Yorubaland should secede from Nigeria, describing it as treasonable and unpatriotic.
The group also tackled the leader of the Indigenous People of Biarfra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, for allegedly spearheading arson attacks and killings under the guise of secession in the Southeast, advising that Yoruba should resist the IPOB from brainwashing and infiltrating their ranks.
Speaking at a rally held in Ado Ekiti on Thursday to condemn the agitators, the group’s National Coordinator, Adeshina Animashaun, regretted the spate of violence in the southwest and southeast in recent times leading to loss of lives and property.
The rally, comprising okada riders, different youth groups and driver unions, moved from the Fajuyi Park and danced round Ado Ekiti, the capital city.
They also despatched letters of protest to Governor Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers and security agencies.
They flaunted placards with the inscriptions: ‘One Nigeria is Paramount’, ‘Stand Together and Love One Another’, ‘There is No Way We can Survive as a Nation And in The World Without Unity’, ‘Individually We are One Drop, Together we are An Ocean’, among others.
“On our part as YAF members, we want to warn sternly that we won’t allow any group or individual to turn the Southwest into a theatre of war. Our Yoruba brothers involved in this evil enterprise or plot to destabilise the Yoruba race should retrace their steps to avoid dire consequences.
“We recorded huge losses in the southwest during the End SARS protest in terms of burnt property worth trillions of naira, not to talk of valuable human lives destroyed due to the violence that followed the End SARS.
“The federal government, police and men of the Nigerian army and other security agencies should take urgent steps to stop the Yoruba independence agitators and freedom fighters before they set the entire country ablaze”, Animashaun said.
Animashaun urged the federal government to display its political will by propelling the Department of State Services, military and the police to activate their machinery against these elements in the southwest before the situation escalates.
He said if actions are not taken swiftly to checkmate the rising violent tendencies of the agitators, the southwest will be immersed into unprecedented cataclysm.
Animashaun added that; “These agitators were being emboldened by the recent spate of attacks on security infrastructure and personnel in the Southeast, especially the attacks on police stations and killings of innocent policemen.
“It is very clear that the masterminds of these violence are bent on throwing Nigeria into chaos to put governments at both state and federal levels into violence to enable them execute their respective evil plans for Nigeria.
“We learnt that these elements have begun to mobilise their members in the southwest for the next phase of their so-called agitation for Yoruba independence and self determination by engaging in more violent protests and bloody confrontations with the government.
“But should they refuse to take our modest advice to desist from their devilish plans and unpatriotic activities in Yorubaland, they should be prepared to face dire consequences as we would no longer fold our arms and allow them destroy our peace, economy and social wellbeing”, the YAF boss stated.
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