In its continued campaign against the alleged plot by certain stakeholders to lead the Yorubas to secede from the rest of Nigeria, a pro Yoruba group, the Yoruba Appraisals Forum (YAP), on Tuesday, staged a peaceful protest at Osogbo, the capital of Osun State
The group which had earlier staged anti secession protests in other cities in the South West, presented their petitions to Governor Gboyega Oyetola; Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt Hon Timothy Owoeye and other prominent indigenes of the state.
YAF, which severally opposed the agitation by some groups for the secession of Yoruba race from the rest of Nigeria, also petitioned the Osun State Commissioner of Police; and prominent royal fathers in the state, including the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi;
The petition was also sent to the Owa-Obokun of Ijesha land, Oba Gabriel Adekunle Aromalaran; Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun; and the Timi of Ede, Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal.
The group described the plan by some Yoruba secessionist groups as an invitation for another civil war and faulted calls by some Yoruba leaders for the dismemberment of Nigeria and secession of the South-West region.
The YORUBA stressed that the unity of the country remained non-negotiable, and therefore, urged the Federal Government and the various security agencies to nip such alleged secession plans in the bud.
YAF National Coordinator, Adeshina Animashaun, who led other members during their visits to the governor, other prominent indigenes of Osun State and royal fathers in the state, urged the six governors and other major stakeholders in the South-West to rise to the challenge that some of Yoruba elders were about to foist on the people of the region.
Animashaun stated that YAF wanted to emphatically say that the aims and objectives of the most vociferous of these disparate groups known as the Yoruba World Congress, which claims to be the umbrella body for these amorphous groups, were “patently suspect.”
“Those people by their nefarious and unpatriotic activities are bent on bringing hardship and disaster to the peace loving people of the South West,” he said.
Animashaun recalled that the YWC President General, Prof Banji Akintoye, in a press statement, had disclosed that the membership of the Yoruba-speaking nation of the UNPO was contained in in a letter addressed to him through the YWC coordinator for Europe by the UNPO Secretary General, Ralph Bunches.
“Your Excellency, the antics and body language of the YWC are enough clear indications of the sinister plans by some of these so-called Yoruba self-determination groups and their leaders like Prof. Akintoye, to lead their innocent and unsuspecting people to secede from Nigeria,” he said.
The YAF coordinator noted that with Amotekun under the control of YWC, it was planning to sustain unprovoked attacks and intensify the provocation of other Nigerians, especially northerners, in the pursuit of their selfish and devilish aim of seceding and dismembering Nigeria.
Animashaun, therefore, stressed that YAF was not in support of any person or groups clamouring for the secession of Yoruba land from Nigeria.
He vowed that YAF members would not be part of any arrangement that the South-West state governors and Yoruba traditional rulers have not endorsed.
The YAF coordinator also reminded those agitating for the secession of Yoruba land from Nigeria that such act is treasonable and punishable under the law of the country.
