October 1 rallies: Banji Akintoye cautions against violence

Ahead of October 1, 2020, Independence Day celebration, President-General of Yoruba World Congress (YWC), Prof. Banji Akintoye, has reiterated that Nigerians have constitutional rights to peaceful protest over the state of the nation and demand a separate country of their own while cautioning the citizens against the use of force or violence.

It would be recalled that a diaspora coalition, Yoruba One Voice (YOV), last Wednesday, said its proposed sensitisation rally tagged: “Oodua Republic Sensitization Campaign,” designed to draw the attention of the global world to situation and happenings in Nigeria slated for October 1 remained sacrosanct.

Akintoye said this on Sunday in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos in reaction to a report by a news publication (not Nigerian Tribune), expressing shock that at no time did he ever say that President Muhammadu Buhari would likely be Nigeria’s last president and that the Yoruba nation would take its self-determination on October 1, as published in the paper.

The elder statesman, who is also a foremost historian, while saying that some of the published words did not emanate from him, recalled that all who had had close contact with him knew that he stood only for peaceful negotiations out of Nigeria’s present situation.

“I have said in meetings, messages and other interviews that our youths should be peaceful and law-abiding in all their actions. I have never said anything about October 1st other than that if anybody insists on rallies in Nigeria on October 1st, they should observe uttermost peace and respect for the law.

“That they must not regard law enforcement agents as enemies. That if the police order them to disperse, they should do so and never argue with the police. That we Yoruba should show maturity and not appear like people who want to disrupt the peace,” he said.

Akintoye, while noting that there were suggestions that some persons were bent on discrediting him in order to destroy the YWC and stop the Yoruba aspirations, threatened to unmask those behind such clandestine move who he described as cowards.

He, however, expressed deep disappointment about current rot in the country, saying he was genuinely convinced and of the opinion that “change can, and must be accomplished peacefully,” as things cannot continue like this.

“I am deeply disappointed about what Nigeria has now become. I am sincerely convinced that we cannot continue like this. But I am consistent of the opinion that change can, and must be accomplished peacefully,” he said.

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