By Ologeh Joseph Chibu
Pan Yoruba groups after a meeting in Lagos has cautioned the Government of Delta State to desist from seeking to diminish the exalted seat of the Olu of Warri. The groups said the policies of the demystification of the Olu of Warri will boomerang and may spark avoidable round of hostilities in the oil rich region. The Chairman of the event was renowned journalist, Adewale Adeoye while the Guest Speaker was Director General, Development Agenda for Western Nigeria, (DAWN) Mr Seye Oyeleye. Representatives of South West State Governors also attended the event.
In its communique issued at the end of a three day meeting held in Lagos and signed by Popoola Ajayi and Chief Kunle Oshodi, the Alliance for Yoruba Democratic Movements, (AYDM), a coalition of 130 groups in the old Western Region warned the Government of Delta State and its collaborators to be prepared to face the consequences if its politics of ethnic profiling and anti-Itsekiri policies lead to break out of hostilities in the oil producing state.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who attended the second day of the meeting through its Special Adviser on Media Mr Tunde Rahman said Nigeria has recorded improved oil production in the Niger-Delta since President Tinubu came to power. He said inflation has also dropped in the past few weeks adding that Tinubu is working hard to transform the country to greater heights. He said requests by the AYDM to send a delegation to the President Tinubu would be presented adding that the meeting between the group and the President was necessary at this time.
The conference was attended by over 1,500 delegates from all over the South West including Kogo, Kwara, Delta and the West African Coasts.
Yoruba community leaders in the South-South, Middle-belt and the core North also attended the event.
AYDM said it condemns the conscious attempt by the Government of Delta State to undermine the Olu of Warri Kingdom which had existed since the 15th century through the creation of mushroom and pick-on-the road traditional rulers to rival the Olu of Warri.
‘We have watched these nauseating developments with grave concern. This has the potential of igniting another round of hostilities and armed conflict in the tempestuous Niger Delta,’ AYDM said.
The group stated ‘announce to the world that the Yoruba are blood-bound to the Itsekiri and would stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Itsekiri to defend their Warri ancestral homeland even to the last pint of our blood.’ AYDM said Governors, except former Governor Okowa elected by the people of Delta State are using state machinery to pursue parochial and self-serving agenda. The group said the Itsekiri would never be abandoned by the Yoruba and that everything will be done to protect and defend the ancestral territories of Itsekiri people.
The AYDM also called on the Federal Government and the NNPC to withdraw the pipeline protection contracts on Yoruba and Itsekiri land which may have been given to non-Yoruba and non Itsekiri persons. We reject it its totality the award of contracts for the protection of Pipelines in Itsekiri and Yoruba territories to individuals that were noted to have waged armed uprising against indigenous peoples on Yoruba and Itsekiri territories.