Attack on Igboho is assault on Yoruba Nation, 25 Pan Yoruba groups speak
Alleged torture of arrested activists
“We’ll work with Igbo, Middle Belt”
The attack on Yoruba self determination activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemi, (Igboho) is synonymous with an attack on Yoruba Nation, some 25 Pan Yoruba groups said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The groups in a statement made available to Irohinoodua described Igboho as a victim of selected justice adding that his travails represent a direct assault on the Yoruba people all over the world.
“The genocide in Yorubaland perpetrated against her people happened since 2015, as soon as President Mohammadu Buhari assumed power. It has reached the peak that Yoruba people can no longer withstand. The situation gets worse by every stretch of the day. There is no solution in sight while the Federal Government frustrates every genuine efforts by the people to defend their ancestral home from terrorism” the groups in the statement signed by Mr Sunday Akinnuoye, Mr Rasaq Arogundade, Ajuwon Oritsegbemi, Alhaja Saliat Adedoyin, Taofik Adeyemi and Comrade Wale Balogun on behalf of the coalition said. The activists alleged torture of more than 43 people arrested in the wake of the riots at Ojota.
“By declaring Igboho wanted, the FG has declared Yoruba nation wanted and hunted. We do not want war, but if the Nigerian State imposes war on Yoruba people, we are not going to be conquered. We will fight to the last pint of blood and we shall win. Our God will win for us because we stand on truth and equity”, the coalition stated.
The 25 groups also said it is ready to work with Igbo, the Middle Belt and all ethnic groups in Nigeria in their collective desire to stop the plot to take over indigenous land and resources that the people have treasured for centuries adding that what Nigeria is witnessing is the emergence of religious extremists in a state with legitimate officials running version of Islamic State of West African Province, (ISWAP) and whose members are the managers of the Nigerian political and economic structures.
They said that is why armed non-state extremists have become untouchables, operating above the law across Nigeria to the extent of creating fiefdoms, collecting taxes, akin to ISIS states already existing as legal entities and tolerated by the current Nigerian government.
“They have taken over the structures of the state and are using public funds and institutions to drive an obviously backward, reactionary, blood-stained Taliban ideology down the throat of millions of long suffering Nigerians. It is an idea propelled by a complex feeling of vain ethnic superiority to be sustained through crude force, brutal and savage suppression of dissent opinions.”
They called on the Federal Government to immediately release the 45 all Yoruba and Itsekiri people being tried on trumped up charges following the Ojota rally adding that the huge turnout at the July 3 peaceful protest signified that the will of the people is a million times stronger than guns and armoured tanks of their oppressors.
The groups said the Nigerian state no longer represents the diversity of her people. “The machinery of state has been converted to instruments of hate-driven political and ethnic persecution in the hands of the Fulani hegemony that is bent on destroying Yoruba civilization and impose war on her people”, they added.
On attempt to arrest Chief Adeyemo, the groups said the activist stood up at a time that Yoruba land was ravaged by armed terrorists killing, maiming, destroying farms, kidnapping and raping our mothers adding that those who criticized his moblisation of Yoruba peasants have offered no solution to the ceaseless killings and wanton destruction of farmlands across the Yoruba territories.
Igboho, they claimed represent the voice of the voiceless and a gleam of hope for helpless and hopeless peasants.
“The Federal Government has the tradition of writing Judgments even before self determination activists are taken to court. By invading Igboho’s house and killing two people, leaving an abattoir of blood, Nigeria has simply become a terrorist state with a clear indication that it can never offer justice to Yoruba people peacefully seeking the right to self determination.”
Some of the 25 listed groups are O’odua Peoples Congress (New Era), Yoruba Revolutionary Movement, (YOREM), O’odua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC), O’odua Peoples Congress, (OPC-Reformed), Network for Yoruba Alliance, (NENA), Agbekoya, O’odua Liberation Movement, (OLM), Ibile Movement, Itsekiri Nationality Coalition, (INC), Yoruba Professional Forum, Imodoye, Federation for Yoruba Consciounsness and Culture, (FYCC), Yoruba International Democratic Movement, (OIDEM), Covenant Group, Isokan Omo Oodua Ronu, Apapo O’odua Koya, (AOKOYA), Oodua Students Movement, (OSM), O’odua Hunters Union, (OHUN) among many others