Renowned historian, Prof Banji Akintoye has alerted governors of the South-West states that the zone has been surrounded by terrorists.
He charged the governors to rise up to defend their states against the marauders, whom he said were preparing to strike at any moment.
Akintoye, who is the leader of Ilana Omo Oodua, the umbrella body for Yoruba self-determination groups, stated this in a letter to the governors, according to a statement by his media aide, Maxwell Adeleye.
The Second Republic senator warned that the aim of the foreign invaders was to wreck the zone’s economy by attacking important places.
Akintoye also appealed to the Pastor Enoch Adeboye of RCCG, Bishop David Oyedepo of Winners chapel and Muslim clerics in the South-West to take security measures to protect their premises from the terrorists.
The statement read, “This is an alert from Ilana Omo Oodua to the Yoruba people at home and in the diaspora. The situation that has developed in Nigeria, in recent days, calls for the uttermost vigilance of the Yoruba nation, and every Yoruba man, woman and child.
“There is danger that if we don’t mount that high level of vigilance today, very serious pains can be inflicted upon us as a nation and on countless numbers of citizens of our nation.
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“A few days ago, precisely, Saturday, the 8th of May, I sent a very desperate letter to the six Governors of the Southwest. The letter reads as follows:
“Your Excellencies, the Governors of the Yoruba Southwest. This is a very desperate message from me to the State Governors of our Yorubaland in the face of the impending escalation of the ongoing invasion of our homeland. A combination of Fulani terrorists, Boko Haram and ISIS have occupied Niger State which is immediately north of Yorubaland, thereby providing for themselves very easy access into Yorubaland through the Yoruba parts of Kwara and Kogi States.
“Then, recently, the US has issued a statement that ISIS has infiltrated Southern Nigeria from the sea— meaning that the coast of Lagos, Ogun and Ondo States have been infiltrated.
“Our situation has thus become desperate and requires desperate actions from our State Governors. I feel obliged to devote much attention to the study of our Yoruba nation’s vicissitudes in these terrible times, and from such studies, I am hereby raising an informed alarm to the Governors of our States. I humbly and passionately urge our Governors to come together to give the needed response to the danger that threatens to engulf our Yorubaland in, most probably, the next few days.
“It is very well known that the signature action of these foreign terrorist organisations is to first destroy prominent assets of the society that they attack. That could mean that major public and private buildings in Lagos and Ibadan, particularly the hugely symbolic Cocoa House in Ibadan, would be their immediate targets.
“By the grace of God, we will ultimately expel them from our homeland, but by then, very many valuable assets of our nation might have been wrecked. This is something that we can and must prevent by preempting them with our massive defensive measures.
“I wish our Governors God’s wisdom and strength as they rise together to do the desperately needful now. I trust you all to make the best decision, but I respectfully urge that you also borrow a leaf from what Governor Ortom has done in his Benue State.
“That was last Saturday. Now, in the past 24 hrs, that is, since late Monday, May 10, 2021, more troubling developments have occurred. First, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, went on air and announced several Federal Government measures which were said to be made necessary by COVID-19.
“However, while Nigerians were still pondering the Federal Government’s announcement, Dr. Sani Aliyu, Coordinator of the National Presidential Task Force on COVID 19, came out with a statement that the announcement a night before on lockdown, curfew, and public gathering were fake. He concluded that the public should ignore them.
“We urge the Yoruba people to be aware of what may be happening now. We ask Yoruba people to remember that when the Federal Government announced a lockdown in March 2020, the lockdown was converted to a sinister opportunity to truck countless loads of Fulani terrorists and others to the South, especially to the Yoruba Southwest. We Yoruba people must defend our homeland, our towns, cities, villages, farmlands and our people no matter what anybody else may be doing.
“Happily, most Yoruba people are no longer in doubt about the danger that confronts their nation in Nigeria, but we need now is to mobilize ourselves in defence of our homeland.
“The Yoruba people are grateful to the Yoruba youths for the way they have woken up to resist the invasion of Yorubaland by terrorist bandits.
“The Yoruba youths must take particular cognizance of the following facts: That terrorists have taken over Niger State: That Niger State is the immediate Northern neighbour of Yorubaland; that terrorists now command easy access into Yoruba land through the Yoruba parts of Kwara and Kogi States; a powerful nation, the United States of America, has issued an alert informing Nigeria and the world that ISIS, probably in alliance with other terrorist groups, has infiltrated the Southern parts of Nigeria from the sea; That the Nigerian Federal Government has not responded in any way to all these dangerous developments, which means that we must not wait for any Federal Government to defend us.
“We, Yoruba people, must also remember in particular that all past efforts by terrorists in Nigeria have always had special plans for Yorubaland because, as everybody knows, Yorubaland is the home of the richest non-petroleum resources in Nigeria.
“All these call for a new and higher level of response and vigilance by the Yoruba people. Our youths have been holding mega rallies across cities and that is a very welcome development, but our youths must now respond at a much higher level than mega rallies. They must organise themselves urgently to protect our roads, especially the roads that lead into our homeland. They must ensure that the influx of terrorists and arms into our land definitively stops.”