A group, Ijebu Youth Congress (IYC), an umbrella body of youths in the Old Ijebu Province, has distanced itself from the position of the General Alani Akinrinade-led Yoruba Assembly, which favoured holding of a referendum as a basis for the continued existence of Nigeria.
Rather, the group expressed confidence in the initiatives of the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, to douse the inter-ethnic tension in the country while reaffirming its trust in Osinbajo’s ability to steer the ship of the nation in the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari.
President of the group, Otunba Adedoyin Banjo-Adeniyi, gave this position in a release issued on Thursday, accusing the Gen. Akinrinade-led Assembly of misrepresenting facts in its purported resolution calling for a referendum as a basis for the continued peaceful co-existence of Nigeria as indivisible entity.
The IYC posited that the people of old Ijebu Province had not mandated anybody or group to speak on its behalf as regards the continued existence of the country or otherwise.
According to the group, the Ijebu Nation is an autonomous community before the 1892 Imagbon War and so will not need anybody to make a case for them in respect of their relationship with other ethnic nationalities cohabiting in the Nigerian space.
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