Oduduwa Agitators: No Police Action Can Stop Us – South West Groups

Agitators for the cre­ation of the Yoru­ba nation have dismissed police decision to monitor and investigate their activities, especially in Lagos State.

Chief Deji Osinbogun, a leader of the Yoruba World Assembly (YWA), maintained that since all these years of heinous acts perpetuating by the Fulani herdsmen, Myetti Allah, the killing and maiming of innocent Nigerians by the so-called Myetti Allah cattle breeders, the police have not been able to issue such threats or investigate the whole issue and bring out the perpetrators.

They wonder why police should now be saying that they would be going after those clamouring for their le­gitimate rights.

He noted that it was disap­pointing that the police which had failed to protect citizens, should be talking of investigat­ing self-actualisation agitators, arguing that the attempt might further deepen the disunity in the country.

In his reaction also, the Media and Communication Secretary of Ilana Omo Oo­dua, Adeleye Maxwell, said the decision of the police to investigate agitators was of no effect as long as the agitators carried out their advocacy for self-determination in a peace­ful manner.

Mr. Maxwell, who spoke on behalf of the Ilana Omo Oodua, said: “It is our rights to protest for self-determination, we are protesting for self-deter­mination in accordance with the law of the land, the UN and AU Constitutions, which Nigeria is even part of attested to this that self-actualisation is our legitimate right.

“The Nigeria Constitution also stipulated that self-deter­mination protest and demand are our legitimate rights, the only limitation is that it must be done in a peaceful manner.

“We have been very careful that our protests are peacefully conducted. Even the police are always on ground to ensure that the protest is not hijacked by hoodlums.

“They are always on ground to maintain law and order. We have staged the pro­tests in Ibadan. It was peaceful; no life was reportedly lost.

“Journalists were there with well coverage and there were no reports of loss of lives, nor was any protester arrest­ed for possession of unlawful arms.

“We held the protest in Abeokuta in Ogun State. It was also a peaceful one. Some of our people were initially ar­rested by the police, but they were freed when they found nothing implicating or con­trary on them.

“They carry no arms, nor ammunitions. We are agitat­ing for our legitimate rights as stipulated by laws of the coun­try. So, I think the IGP is just saying something to impress his boss, as you know his new in that office.”

Similarly, the Yoruba Na­tion Global Directorate, the Yoruba shadow government, has expressed surprise at the decision of the police to place separatist groups in the coun­try under watch, describing it as a ploy to hound the agi­tators.

Otunba Demola Edward, Information Coordinator of the group, said that the Police that failed to protect life and property of the citizenry was promising to chase shadows.

He declared that the group was unperturbed by the threat, vowing that nothing would stop them from pursuing their desire for independent Yoruba nation.

Otunba Edward said: “We found it interesting that the Police that failed woefully in its primary duties of main­taining law and order and securing the lives and proper­ties of citizens under the dis­putable Federal Government is now threatening citizens of various nationalities within a mere geographical expression exercising their fundamental human rights of self- deter­mination under international law and jurisprudence.

“While we view this as a ploy to criminally harass le­gitimate agitators for Yoruba Nation, we say unequivocally that no threats will discourage our determination to demand for actualisation of a sovereign Yoruba nation, which will save our people from the ongoing massacre and the impending genocide by the Fulani backed by government of Nigeria, who are hell bent on forcefully taking over our land.

“It is disheartening to note that the failed Nigeria state is evidently unsafe for Yoruba citizens, as economic woes, incessant kidnapping, raping, and murders by Fulani contin­ue to heighten in our land.

“We reiterate that our quest to exit Nigeria under peaceful, civil and legal means was un­dermined by the failed Gen. Buhari-led government.

“It is noteworthy that prop­ositions made to the Nigerian government by the Yoruba Na­tion in conjunction with other ethnic nationalities have so far been ignored by Buhari’s ad­ministration, a Fulani leader under whose watch the atroc­ities aforementioned are now a daily common occurrence.

“Suffice it to say that the Yoruba nation is not ignorant of the Fulani-led administra­tion’s plans to execute a grand evil plan to conquer Yoruba land and subjugate Yoruba citizens on their original an­cestral home land.

“We urge all agitators for Yoruba nation, Middle Belt­ans, and Biafra, home and diaspora, to continue their liberation activities without let or hindrance.

“The Directorate takes cog­nisance of the treaties of the Commonwealth, the African Union and United Nations. Our quest for self-determina­tion is non-negotiable.”

Otuba Edward, however, urged the Yoruba to remain calm and go about their busi­nesses pending the exit of the nationality from the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

However, leader of the Yoruba Youth Socio-Cultural Association (YYSA) World­wide, Comrade Olalekan Hammed, said there was nothing extraordinary in the police monitoring or in­vestigating the activities of agitators.

“As the worldwide youth leader of Yoruba ethnic group, I champion our cause to ensure that Nigeria is re­structured because we believe that it is the solution to cur­rent problems and the only way through which peace and development could be ascertained.

“In other words, peaceful and orderly agitation is legit, but some of Oodua and Bi­afra agitators have become deviants.

“They are ready to kill and destroy their own region all in the name of agitation.

“At least, nineteen police of­ficers have been killed in the last one month in South East by deadly agitators.

“Although, none of the Oodua agitators has become so devilish to that extent, but they all have to be checked, I mean, to restrain them from embarking on killing and de­struction.

“There is nothing wrong in it if the police decided to investigate those perceived to be heteroclite among the so-called separatists because destruction will only be a set­back to our region.

“Agitation for restructur­ing or secession is part of the citizens’ inalienable rights provided it is done lawfully without shedding of blood.

“We cannot say that inves­tigating the agitators is a way to hound them, no.

“We could all see what is happening in the East, where many police stations were set ablaze and officers were mur­dered,” Hammed said.