Yoruba group protests against those agitating for secession in Ekiti

A Yoruba organisation, Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) on Thursday staged a protest against calls by individuals agitating for the region to secede from Nigeria, describing the calls as treasonable and unpatriotic.

The group also tackled the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, for allegedly spearheading arson attacks and killings under the guise of secession in the South-East, advising that Yoruba should resist the IPOB from brainwashing and infiltrating their ranks.

The rally, comprising members of a commercial motorcycle association, different youth groups and driver unions, moved from the Fajuyi Park and danced around Ado Ekiti, the capital city.

The proponents 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 including ‘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.

Speaking during the protest in Ado-Ekiti on Thursday to condemn the agitators, the group’s National Coordinator, Adeshina Animashaun, regretted the spate of violence in the South-West and South-East in recent times leading to loss of lives and property.

Animashaun 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 the Yoruba race during the 2020 #EndSARS protest.

“On our part as YAF members, we want to warn sternly that we won’t allow any group or individual to turn the South-West 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 South-West 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.

“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 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 South-West before the situation escalates.

He said if actions are not taken swiftly to checkmate the rising violent tendencies of the agitators, the South-West will be immersed into an unprecedented crisis.

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