BY REBECCA AJANI
A group, Yoruba Appraisal Forum, has warned Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly called Sunday Igboho, and others promoting secession theories that its members would not allow them to turn the South-West into a war zone.
Members of the group took to the streets of Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, to protest against the call for secession by Igboho and others, including the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu, in the South-East.
They converged on the Fajuyi Park, in Ado Ekiti at about 9am, marched through the fly-over bridge in Okesa, and moved into the major streets in the town.
They displayed placards with inscriptions such as “We believe in One Nigeria”, “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”, among others.
National Coordinator of the group, Adeshina Animashaun, described Igboho’s call for secession as treasonable and unpatriotic, while also berating Kanu for allegedly spearheading killings and arson under the guise of secession in the South-East.
He warned Yoruba people involved in the calls for secession to retrace their steps or face dire consequences.
He 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 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 group also urged the Federal Government and security agencies to take urgent steps to stop the Yoruba independence agitators and freedom fighters before they set the entire country ablaze.
