Godwin Amunde
The Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) has urged the Federal Government and security agencies in the country to take urgent steps to stop alleged plans by some unpatriotic elements to launch series of attacks on security personnel in the South-West states.
YAF alleged that there were plans by these individuals and groups to smuggle into the South-West the type of wanton violence being inflicted on the people and security agents in the South-East part of the country by the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra.
The Forum also alleged that it had uncovered plans by some so-called freedom fighters and secession agitators in the South-West making efforts to replicate and inflict the same level of violence being visited on the hapless people of the South-East and South-South states by IPOB on our peace-loving people in Yorubaland.
The National Coordinator of YAF, Adeshina Animashaun, said at a protest in Ado Ekiti that all right thinking members of the public should condemn such agitations.
The protesters carried placards with the inscriptions like: 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, and Individually We are One Drop, Together we are An Ocean.
They also dispatched letters of protest to Gov.Kayode Fayemi, the Ekiti State Council of Traditional Rulers and security agencies.
The YAF National Coordinator said the spate of violence in the Southwest and Southeast in recent times had led to loss of lives and property, hence the need to ensure that reckless utterances must be guarded.
Nigeria should not go the way of Somalia. Somalia is no longer the same today, because of war. I dont want to even witness war throughout my lifetime, because we knew what we lost in Yorubaland during the 2020 #EndSARS protest.
On our part as YAF members, we want to warn sternly that we wont allow any group or individuals to turn the Southwest 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 Southwest 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 protest.
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, he said.
While urging the federal government to display its political will by propelling the DSS, Military and the police to activate their machinery against these elements in the Southwest before the situation escalated, he said if actions were not taken swiftly to checkmate the rising violent tendencies of the agitators, the Southwest would be immersed into unprecedented cataclysm.
These agitators were being emboldened by the recent spate of attacks on security infrastructure and personnel in the Southeast, especially the attacks on police stations and killings of innocent policemen.
It is very clear that the masterminds of these violence are bent on throwing Nigeria into chaos to put governments at both state and federal levels into violence to enable them execute their respective evil plans for Nigeria.
We learnt that these elements have begun to mobilise their members in the Southwest for the next phase of their so-called agitation for Yoruba independence and self determination by engaging in more violent protests and bloody confrontations with government.
But should they refuse to take our modest advice to desist from their devilish plans and unpatriotic activities in Yorubaland, they should be prepared to face dire consequences as we will no longer fold our arms and allow them destroy our peace, economy and social wellbeing, the YAF boss stated.
The group also flayed 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 Southeast, advising that Yoruba should resist the IPOB from brainwashing and infiltrating their ranks.
