By Akinwale Kasali
Foremost Pan Yoruba group, Apapo Oodua Koya, AOKOYA, has praised the courage of two foremost Yoruba traditional rulers for speaking out in defense of their people.
AOKOYA, a coalition of several Yoruba organisations said the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi and, the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, have spoken the minds of Yoruba people irrespective of political, religious or social creed.
“We appreciate the courage to speak truth at a critical moment in Yoruba history. It should be recalled that AOKOYA was the first to alert the world about the sinister motives of the armed Fulani herdsmen that are currently occupying Yoruba territories in what in manner the group described as most provocative and unacceptable. They told Nigerians that there were 1,123 armed Fulani cells across Yoruba land. Their report came out about two months before former President Olusegun Obasanjo spoke about an alleged Fulanisation and conquest plot.
The cells, it is revealed, host armed Fulani men from across West Africa. This fact is known to security chiefs. It is alleged, in many quarters that they may have refused to do anything because the Fulani herdsmen fit the political shape being constructed by a section of the political class.
“This report was based on our intelligence gathering using modern techniques. We are glad that finally, the truth is coming from the mouths of our most respected traditional rulers. We have been vindicated.”
AOKOYA officials, Col Abimbola Sowumi and Deputy Secretary, Publicity, Ismail Abiodun said in a statement both signed.
The group also called on the Government of Ondo State to disband the Fulani Vigilante set up by the state.
AOKOYA said the State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, was economical with the truth when he alleged lied that he said his government has not set up a Fulani Vigilante group, adding that it has in its possession official documents indicating the Fulani Vigilante group was set up four weeks ago.
The group said “For centuries, we have seen Fulani herdsmen come to Yorubaland without any incidence. What we detest is the kidnapping, the raping, the siege and the atmosphere of violence that have now been introduced to Yorubaland.
The Fulani have been firing shots and killing innocent Yoruba people. Our offence is that we complain about the imposed violence and killings which have tripled”
The group said it is very unfortunate that some people are accusing Yoruba people who speak out against violence in their homeland as calling for war.
“It is very shameful and a source of disgrace that some people say because Yoruba complain about violence in their ancestral homes then they are calling for war. How can you shoot a mother and when the children cry you retort that the children are calling for war? Have people really lost their senses? Do people find it difficult to think straight? Can a people because of porridge deny their own conscience and support evil aimed at exterminating their own people?”
According to AOKOYA, the people looking for war are not the Yoruba people killed daily. “The people working towards civil war are those with illegal weapons, they are those that are armed to the teeth with AK 47. They are those that have taken over lands that do not belong to them. They are those that want Yoruba people to be raped and killed and all they expect from us is to bless the killers and offer them our daughters after they had raped our mothers. If our forefathers had not resisted the Fulani invasion in 1804, Yorubaland would have been a conquered territory like Hausaland till date.
The offspring of those who resist Uthman Dan Fodio Jihad must never betray the future generations of Yoruba people.”
The group said if the current situation of herdsmen violence continues, the Fulani herdsmen and their collaborators will be held responsible for whatever follows.
