Owo Catholic Church attack, a declaration of war against Yoruba -Akintoye

By Stephen Gbadamosi

Leader of the apex body for Yoruba self-determination and self-preservation movements, Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide (IOOW), Professor Banji Akintoye, has described the Sunday attack allegedly unleashed against Christian worshipers at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo-State by “gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen that left about 85 people dead” as a declaration of war against the Yoruba people.

Responding through a press statement by the Communications Secretary of IOOW, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, on Sunday, Akintoye called on the state governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, to declare an emergency against activities of Fulani herdsmen in the state with immediate effect, DailyTimes gathered.

The renowned scholar said “the effontery of the Fulani marauders needs to be frankly and courageously confronted, so as to prove to their sponsors that the Yoruba people can never be intimidated or subjugated.”

He added that to permanently solve “the Fulani herdsmen quagmire, the Yoruba people need to negotiate their exit from the union of Nigeria without further delay.”

“We have stated it very expressly that the Yoruba people need to negotiate their exit from Nigeria as a matter of urgency, but our partisan political actors in Yorubaland never took us serious.

“We warned them that there’s fire on the mountain, but we were mocked because of their personal aggrandizement.

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“Today, we have all been encircled, most especially, in Lagos. For herdsmen to have the effontery of bombarding a church in Yorubaland to kill about 85 people shows that we are now in a realistic danger.

“My urgent advice to Governor Akeredolu is to pick up the gauntlet and declare an emergency against the activities of all Fulani herdsmen in the state with immediate effect.

“We have now been taken for granted. We need not pretend anymore. We must demand, unanimously, an exit from Nigeria.

“We, the Yoruba people, cannot live in the same country with characters whose idea of common citizenship in Nigeria is to brutalise, subjugate and even exterminate us.

“It is time to leave these characters now. All Stakeholders – the elites, traditional rulers and our women – should act now.

“All the South-West states, including the Yoruba leaders in Kogi and Kwara states should equally declare an emergency against the activities of Fulani herdsmen. We must now take our destinies into our hands,” Akintoye said.