The Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) has urged the Federal Government and security agencies to clampdown on secessionist agitators in the South West to avert anarchy.
They also rejected calls by a group led by self styled Yoruba activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, alias Sunday Igboho, and others that Yorubaland should secede from Nigeria, describing such a move as treasonable.
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Mr. Adeshina Animashaun, the National Coordinator of the group, said at a protest in Ado Ekiti that all right-thinking members of the public should condemn such agitations.
He said the spate of violence in the Southwest and Southeast in recent times had led to the loss of lives and property, hence the need to ensure that reckless utterances must be guarded.
Animahaun, while criticizing Igboho and his cohorts, said: “Nigeria should not go the way of Somalia. Somalia is no longer the same today, because of war. I don’t want to even witness war throughout my lifetime, because we knew what we lost in Yorubaland during the 2020 #EndSARS protest.
“On our part as YAF members, we want to warn sternly that we won’t allow any group or individuals 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 #EndSARS 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 #EndSARS protest.
“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.
He urged the federal government to display its political will by propelling the DSS, Military and the police to activate their machinery against these elements in the Southwest before the situation escalated.
He said if actions were not taken swiftly to checkmate the rising violent tendencies of the agitators, the Southwest would be immersed into unprecedented cataclysm.
“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 this violence are bent on throwing Nigeria into chaos to put governments at both state and federal levels into violence to enable them to execute their respective evil plans for Nigeria.
“We learned that these elements have begun to mobilize 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 will no longer fold our arms and allow them to destroy our peace, economy, and social wellbeing,” the YAF boss stated.
The group also played 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.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the rally, comprising Okada riders, different youth groups, and transport unions, moved from the Fajuyi Park and danced around Ado Ekiti, the capital city.
The proponents also despatched letters of protest to Gov. Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers, and security agencies.
They carried placards with the inscriptions like: ‘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’, and ‘Individually We are One Drop, Together we are An Ocean’.