The Governor of Ondo State, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, has condemned the continuous agitation for a Yoruba nation by some groups in the South-West. He said such agitation would not succeed as it would thwart the efforts of those who laid down their lives for the unity of the country.

Akeredolu, who is the chairman of the Southern Governors Forum, spoke at the launching of an emblem appeal to flag off the 2023 Armed Forces Remembrance Day held at the state Internal Revenue Service Hall in Akure, the state capital.

He said, “Those clamouring for Oodua Nation will not succeed. People have not laid down their lives for this country for unscrupulous individuals to scuttle it. This country is very important to some of us. We recognise the right of the people to protest or agitate, but if the police feel your actions are treasonable, they will arrest and prosecute you.

“It is not at this stage in the history of this country that we will repeat IPOB (Indigenous People of Biafra – a separatist group in the South-East) in Yorubaland. Opportunity beckons at us. We cannot afford to throw away that opportunity.

We must work to ensure that there is power shift. The opportunity for the presidency to come to the south, especially the South-West, is around the corner. We will not sit and support anyone clamouring for Oodua nation. We will not support it. We have fought for this with everything we had. Nigeria will be good.

“The security agencies will checkmate these unscrupulous enemies embarking on such frivolous activities. We have responsibilities now to soberly reflect on the plight of those who have laid down their lives and those who are still laying down their lives for the unity and peace of this country.”

According to the governor, the daring posture of enemies of the country, which has cost the nation the lives of many gallant soldiers, is highly condemnable. He stressed that the sustained efforts of the officers and men of the military had greatly checked the threat.

He added, “Without the sacrifice and commitment of these officers and men of the Armed Forces, it would have been a matter of time before the whole country was overrun.

The month-long Armed Forces Remembrance Day celebration is therefore a golden opportunity for the government and the society at large to empathise and associate with widows and relations of our fallen heroes, especially those that were cut down in their prime.”

He said there was nothing too good or too much that could replace the precious lives lost or remedy the deprivations and untold hardship suffered by the dependants of such heroes.

While calling on local government councils to donate generously to the cause, he said the major reason for the Emblem Appeal Fund was to provide financial and material support to families of the fallen heroes as well as veterans who survived various military operations with some sustaining varying degrees of injuries that rendered them incapacitated.

Meanwhile, the Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide has said its immediate past leader, Prof Banji Akintoye, remains a lifetime mentor and patron of the organisation and its struggle for the emancipation of the Yoruba Nation.

The Punch reported that Akintoye officially relinquished the chairmanship position to Prof Wale Adeniran. Akintoye resigned as chairman on the basis of principle amidst lingering internal crisis within the organisation.

But in a statement on Friday, the General Secretary of the group, Tunde Amusat, said Akintoye didn’t withdraw from the movement.

The statement partly read, “We have noticed that some mischievous characters and enemies of Yoruba Nation are trying to twist the resignation of Prof Banji Akintoye from the management and leadership of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, the apex body for the Yoruba self-determination struggle to connote that our dear Baba (father) has left the Yoruba Nation struggle.

“We wish to state that the letter of resignation of Prof Banji Akintoye was very explicit and was without ambiguity. Baba never said he was withdrawing from the Yoruba Nation agitation nor resigning his membership of IOOW. He remains our lifetime mentor and one of our patrons.”

It noted that the group was formed by over 100 Yoruba Self-Determination Groups in 2019, first as Yoruba World Congress before it was rebranded as IOOW in 2020 in order to make the struggle indigenous and traditional.

-"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." -Desmond Tutu

-"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge." -Stephen Hawking

Now I finally agree that the wild, wild west politics of sophisticated is just a case of political inferiority, willful self subjugation & enslavement to the so called fuedal power lords. This is a man that fought the likes of the lawless AGF and dare the Buhari to create Amotekun to protect their citizens when killer fulanis were ravaging the SW with gusto.

The same menace gave rise to regional agitations led by Sunday Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu against the onslaught by these government-backed killers. After all, even the likes of Gen Obasanjo and Lt.Gen.T Y. Danjuma that fought for "One Nigeria" in 1966 have seen the futility of his foolishness then today while warning whosoever that cared to listen that the Nigerian army is backing the Fulani annihilation war against other nationals.

Referendum to continued nationhood are parts of democracy. Unity is not sacrosanct as “Unity without verity, is no better than conspiracy.” -John Trapp(English philosopher) So on what basis is governor Rotimi Akeredolu terming the Yoruba Nation agitators as saboteurs? How has the Nigerian federation thrived in the past 62 years of it forced but failed nationhood.

USSR, Yugoslavia-Serbia, Sudan were formerly like multi-segemented countries who negotiate a peaceful, and in some cases violent separation and are better off today. Even Northern Ireland separated from British reigns and are independent today.

Rotimi Akeredolu is a well refined lawyer(SAN) but here is talking down on a people demanding self succession. Is he aware that even President Buhari once supported same for Western Sahara to opt out of Morocco?

"President Muhammadu Buhari has thrown his weight behind the people of Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic(SADR), otherwise called Western Sahara, stating that NIGERIA WOULD ENSURE THE REALIZATION OF THEIR SELF-DETERMINATION AND INDEPENDENCE..(from Morocco)
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2016/03/buhari-backs-western-sahara-on-self-determination-from-morocco/?utm_source=&utm_medium=twitter

Bandits, Fulani and BH terrorists have been ravaging the north demanding for an imposition of a pariah Sharia Republic. They have been getting support from northern politicians in and out of govt. So why can't stand for your people or region demanding for a better federation?

He said there was nothing too good or too much that could replace the precious lives lost or remedy the deprivations and untold hardship suffered by the dependants of such heroes.

One of the umbrella bodies of herdsmen in nigeria, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has alleged that South-West governors are “hiding” wanted yoruba activist Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho. Spokesman for the group, Saleh Alhassan, stated this in an exclusive interview with The PUNCH on Monday.

But Donald Ojogo, an aide to the Chairman of South-West Governors’ Forum and Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi akeredolu, said it is demeaning for the governors to respond to Miyetti Allah’s accusation.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that the Department of State Services on July 1, 2021, raided Igboho's Ibadan residence in Oyo State, detained 13 of his followers, and killed two of the activist’s associates in a “gun duel”.

Igboho, a spearhead of the separatist agitation for the yoruba nation, escaped the bloody raid and was subsequently declared wanted by the secret police on allegations of stockpiling arms to destabilise the country, which he has since denied.

The whereabouts of the yoruba nation agitator, who gained popularity in January, following his eviction notice to suspected killer herders in the Ibarapa area of Oyo State, had since been unknown.

Speaking with The PUNCH on Monday, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore spokesman said the DSS should have raided Igboho’s house earlier than it did. Alhassan, however, advised the activist to turn himself in to security operatives because he would be forcefully apprehended.

He said, “It is in his (Igboho) own best interest if he submits himself peacefully so that he can face justice. Why is he running? Is he not a revolutionary? He should submit himself before they get him because as it is now, he has been declared wanted, he should present himself to the nearest police station.”

The group’s spokesman also alleged that the six governors in the South-West region are hiding Igboho.He said, “All his (Igboho’s) actions are political; he is being used. His godfathers in the South-West should bring him out.

“The security agencies are speaking the language he understands, they will get him. I know the governors are hiding him but they (security agents) will get him.

“The (Nigerian) State has declared him wanted. He is not more than the state. The governors keeping him should produce him. He declared a republic; that was a rebellion. How can you be threatening the sovereignty of the (Nigerian) State and you still have the guts to be walking around and be organising rallies?” Alhassan queried.

However, Ondo State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Donald Ojogo, said it is belittling for the governors to respond to the allegation by Miyetti Allah. When contacted for a reaction on the allegation by the herders’ group, Ojogo told The PUNCH that “It is not necessary, absolutely demeaning for elected governors to engage an association in a media banter.”

Meanwhile, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of nigeria, another herders’ group in the country, kept mum on Igboho’s imbroglio.

“We don’t have any comment on the matter; we don’t talk on political or security issues,” MACBAN Secretary-General, Usman Baba-Ngelzerma, told our correspondent when contacted on Monday.

gasparpisciotta:
Separatists movement all over the world has always been about marginalization stemmed out of lack of fairness, equity and justice by political leaders and political elites......

greenermodels:
....
Disintegration and emergence of new youthful leaders is the only way to emancipate themselves from the exploitation been perpetuated against them by their own elites/Fulani slaves. Nigeria is a gift from the British to the Fulani to administer on their behalf, the country is neither free nor independent.

derecho:
Father Christmas
Good to hear your voice.It's been awhile.

He was shouting Tinubu for president before but it's like it has started to dawn on him that Tinubu can never be president

derecho:
Father Christmas
Good to hear your voice.It's been awhile.

He was shouting Tinubu for president before but it's like it has started to dawn on him that Tinubu can never be president