S’West groups fault police claim on IPOB’s alleged plan to attack Lagos

*Allege pronouncement aimed at pitting Yoruba against Igbo

A coalition of pan-Yoruba groups has picked holes in the allegation by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu, that the banned Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB), is planning to attack Lagos.

While alleging that Odumosu “speaks for the police high command in Abuja,” the coalition stated further that, “While we cherish the responsibility of the police to do their work, we are concerned about the public declaration of the alleged IPOB plans to attack Lagos by the Nigerian Police.

The statement signed by leaders of nine pan-Yoruba groups added, “We are worried that since the police already claim to be in possession of what appears to be a confidential information, the proper thing would have been to discreetly go after the IPOB members to arrest them unless the police is not sure of its information.

“The police statement carries the possibility of being misinterpreted as an Igbo plot against Lagos and Yoruba people. This is dangerous, given the fragile nature of Nigeria.

“We are deeply concerned that the Police publicly declared allegations tempt the prospect of setting Yoruba in the South West against Igbos.

This is very unfortunate at a time that state institutions are increasingly being turned to instruments for pursuing primordial ethnic interests. The Yoruba will work never to allow this to happen

“We are concerned that terrorists and armed herdsmen of Fulani extraction have openly been attacking, kidnapping, raping and killing Yoruba people in the South West, but at no time did the police call a press conference to announce such plan before or after each horrendous killings.

There was also never a time the police linked such attacks to any ethnic group.

“Only recently, Yoruba in Mile 2 were attacked by these people, the police did not make any attempt to speak about the ethnic identity of the perpetrators, yet we know they are largely from a section in the North.

“We are concerned that the police allegation risks setting a greater danger of ethnic conflict between Igbo and Yoruba people, conscious that this will benefit a certain group who think setting Igbo against Yoruba will meet the objective of scuttling the search for peaceful self determination by the two great civilisations.”

The groups added: “We urge the police not to allow themselves to be used by the desperate whose age long dream is to divide the South and set the people against each other for its own narrow gains.

“We urge Yoruba people to ignore the conscious attempts to cause ethnic conflict between Igbo and Yoruba at this time that both ethnic groups need each other.

“The police should avoid ethnic profiling. It is dangerous. The Pan-Yoruba groups assure of our collective desire to sustain peaceful coexistence between Igbo and Yoruba and avoid any slide into ethnic conflict, an ill wind that blows no one any good. To this end, we shall set up a Committee to work out a platform to sustain ethnic harmony in Lagos.

“On police plan to attack agitators for Yoruba self determination, We urge the police have respect for internation laws and should signify the basic democratic principle which is the right of a people to debate their political and economic future.”

The statement was signed by Femi Ajibola Oodua Nationalist Coalition, ONAC; Dr. Kunle Oshodi, Agbekoya; Alhaji Taofik Adeyemi, Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC (Reformed); Chief Diran Obalola, Oodua Liberation Movement, OLM; Mr. Femi Agbana;

Yoruba World Congress (YWC-Lagos State Chapter); Mr. Rasaq Arogundade, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC-Reformed); Mrs. Eunice Okunola, Oodua Women Coalition (OWC); Pastor Goke Otunla, Network for Yoruba Alliance (NENA) and Ahmed Korede Apapo Oodua Koya (AOKOYA).