A pro South west coalition group, under the aegis of the Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) has called on the federal government and Governors of the zone to ensure adequate security as political party campaign takes off, to prevent planned attacks by dissident groups
This is even as the coalition raised the alarm over alleged plans by groups agitating for secession of Yoruba land from the rest of Nigeria to cause violence and chaos in the South-West and other parts of the country with the objective of truncating the conduct of the 2023 general elections.
YAF alleged that some disgruntled persons in the South-West and their allies in other parts of the country and outside, had been engaging in “clandestine activities” aimed at causing violence and sparking off killings, arson and mayhem that would undermine the electoral process and ultimately truncate next year’s elections throughout the country.
The Forum’s coordinator, Adeshina Animashaun, who disclosed this while briefing the press at the weekend, said that the violence, which had been planned in two phases to coincide with the campaigns by political parties in the six South-West states, also had the objective of “re-enacting the arson and killings that characterised the unfortunate “Operation Wetie” violence that took place in the region in the First Republic” and it’s to be spread to the North by the Northern collaborators of the planners to spark off reprisal violence and killings.
It added further that the masterminds of the violence had begun the distribution of arms to their foot soldiers posing as Yoruba Nation agitators, cultists and other hoodlums in the South-West in their alleged plans to instigate violence and cause chaos in the region and subsequently all over the country.
The Forum specifically accused self-exiled Prof Banji Akintoye and his group, Yoruba Self-Determined Movement (YSDM) of being behind the alleged plan to use the agitation for Yoruba Nation to instigate violence and chaos in the South-West.
Citing Akintoye’s recently reported utterances that his group of agitators would achieve the secession of Yorubaland from Nigeria in a few months time, YAF said the statements by the self-exiled leader of agitators for Yoruba Nation should be taken seriously as indications of the violence and evil he and his followers had been planning to forcibly stop the conduct of next year’s polls in the six states of the South-West geo-political zone and beyond.
According to the Forum, “It is a known fact that the agitators for the phantom Yoruba Nation, who are known to be sponsored from within and outside Nigeria, have sinister and very dangerous agenda towards the country, particularly as it concerns the 2023 general elections. There are plans by these groups of Yoruba Nation agitators to cause violence and mayhem during the political campaigns scheduled to kick off on September 28, 2022.
“These groups of Yoruba Nation agitators have lined up various rallies and protests in all the six South-West states to coincide with the political parties’ campaigns with the sole aim of disrupting the political process, instigating violence and chaos, and truncating the conduct of next year’s general elections
“It has come to YAF’s notice recently that some so-called Yoruba Nation champions and agitators as well as disgruntled politicians, working in cahoots with their allies in other parts of the country, have been planning violent and unpatriotic activities in the South-West with the ultimate ulterior motive of truncating the forthcoming 2023 general elections
“The major aim of this is to create panic, fear and anarchy and ultimately scuttle the forthcoming elections in many states of the federation and destabilise the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“YAF indeed has information at its disposal that there are renewed plans by some Yoruba Nation agitators, politicians, their supporters and armed thugs to cause violence and mayhem in the South-West, and subsequently instigate reprisals in other parts of the country.
“The recent activities and utterances of a self-acclaimed Yoruba leader, Professor Banji Akintoye, currently living in self-exile in Benin Republic, are clear indications of the evil plans of the so-called Yoruba Nation agitators for the South-West and Nigeria as a whole.”
It added, “Akintoye’s recent letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, on behalf of the Yoruba Self-Determined Movement (YSDM) that the South-West wanted a “peaceful break away” of the Yoruba nation from Nigeria, and asking the President for support for the South-West people to secede from Nigeria is a ruse, a ploy and a smokescreen to hide his group’s real intention of destabilising the country. Infact, the letter has sharply divided the people of the region and now even causing some disquiet amongst the Yoruba
“YAF wants to state without equivocation that the ultimate objective of this ploy by Akintoye and his group, YSDM is to achieve nothing salutary or beneficial to the people of the South-West and Nigeria, but to further their evil design to undermine and bring down the country and the incumbent administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, out of sheer malice over the forthcoming 2023 general elections.”
YAF, therefore, urged security agencies to immediately retrieve the arms and ammunition already distributed to thugs in the different South-West states allegedly by the Yoruba Nation agitation groups.
The Forum enjoined Nigerians and the people of the South-West in particular, “to resist these unscrupulous Yoruba Nation agitators and disgruntled politicians and stop them from achieving their devilish aims and objectives by collecting their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and ensuring that the 2023 general elections hold and they vote for the candidates of their choice at the polls.”
The pro Yoruba group also advised the Federal Government and the state governors to ensure the deployment of adequate number of security agents throughout Yorubaland as well as the entire country to tighten security and forestall any plan by any group or individuals to instigate violence and cause chaos before and during the 2023 elections.
It added that security agencies should not relent in beefing up security across the South-West and the rest of the country to avert the violence and chaos being planned by some unpatriotic citizens bent on truncating the 2023 polls.
