Pan Yoruba groups replied angrily yesterday to reports that the Governor of Ondo State, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu has set up armed Fulani Vigilante groups in the state.
The groups described attempts by Akeredolu to deny the reports as a ‘tissue of lies to cover up a horrendous anti-humanity policy.’
In a joint statement on Tuesday made available to the media, 23 Pan Yoruba groups described the action of Akeredolu as a ‘monumental disgrace’ to the culture of the heritage and tradition of the people he was elected to serve.
The groups said if Akeredolu fails to disband the groups within 24 hours, Yoruba groups from across the traditional Yoruba territories will move to Ondo State to physically confront the Fulani Vigilante.
“This is not a threat but an historical responsibility to defend every inch of Yorubaland from armed killers who already have their hands dug inside the mouth and intestine of patience Yoruba people.
We have endured traitors for too long, but there should be a limit, for it is better to die than to live in slavery,” Chief Hakeem Salau Akinremi and Col Abimbola Sowunmi (rtd) signed the statement on behalf of the 23 groups.
Other groups that signed the statement were O’odua Peoples Congress, (OPC), Network of O’odua Alliance, (NENA), O’odua Revolutionary Congress, (ORC), Agbekoya, O’odua Students Revolutionary Council, (OSRC), Yoruba Radical Alliance, (YORA), Apapo O’odua Koya (AOKOYA), O’odua Progressives Congress, (OPOC), Okun Revolutionary Movement, (ORM) among many others.
The groups said “You, the Governor of Ondo State is a disgrace to Yoruba nation.
We heard you set up Fulani vigilante about one month ago. We thought it was a joke. It has now been confirmed.
How can you build police from among those that commit crime?
You do not believe in Yoruba vigilante but you believe in Fulani vigilante to protect your own people?
Are you mentally alright? Did you have any sense of history? Did you have a riotous mind that has no place for logic and clear thinking?.”
The groups said Akeredolu’s action amount to selling off the Yoruba nation for his future political ambition adding that his action suggests that he came to power at the prompting of his Fulani masters which appear to explain his contempt for his own people.
It asked the Governor to reverse the order adding that if Akereolu fails to do so in the next 24 hours, “you will learn a very bitter lesson that you cannot take Yoruba people for granted.”
The groups urged Yoruba people all over the world to mark out Akeredolu and his family as an outstanding enemy of the Yoruba people and that they should be treated as outcasts.
“Land is our mother, land is our spirituality, land is our livelihood. When you take over our land, you have killed us.
When you ask armed Fulani militia to take over our land, you have sent us on a suicide mission.
The action of Akeredolu is at variance with the revolutionary tradition of our people in Ondo State who have a long history of resistance against draconian and self-serving policies.”
The groups said “President Mohammadu Buhari asked Nigerians to hand over their weapons. How did the Fulani Vigilante in Ondo State get their weapons? Where did they conduct the training for those who hold the weapons or do they hand over the weapons to then without training? Who supplies the ammunition they use? Who funds their operations in Yorubaland? They even have the courage to man highways in Yorubaland.
There cannot be any declaration of war on Yorubaland beyond the action of these armed groups.
It is shameful that a Governor who claims to be Yoruba can originate a policy to annihilate his own people.
It shows clearly that going to school is not the same thing as having conscience or having wisdom.”