By Ikechukwu Okaforadi
A coalition under the aegis of the Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF), has cautioned the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU), African Union (AU), the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, against allowing the umbrella body of Yoruba self-determination groups, Ilana Omo Oodua, to present a petition against the Nigerian government at the 76th General Assembly of the UN.
In a statement issued yesterday by its National Coordinator, Adeshina Animashaun, and made available to newsmen in Lagos and Abuja, YAF said the objective of the Ilana Omo Oodua was nothing but to bring down Buhari’s Government for no just reason other than malice over the forthcoming 2023 general elections.
“The ultimate objective of this plan by the group is to achieve nothing salutary or beneficial to the people of 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 said.
The Coalition said the separatist group has concluded plans to present a petition against the Nigerian government at the 76th General Assembly of the UN, just as it alleged in its own petition that contrary to the Ilana Omo Oodua’s claim that the UN General Assembly would be an opportunity to explain the rationale behind the Yoruba nation agitation to world leaders, the group plan to use the platform of this global body to get undeserved sympathy and secure support from unsuspecting countries across the world, which are largely uninformed about the true situation of things in Nigeria.
YAF, which in the petition urged the UN to bar Ilana Omo Oodua and its allies from attending the UNGA to present its petition against the Federal Government of Nigeria, adding that the group’s endorsement of the recent petition by the Nigerian Indigenous Nationalities Alliance for Self-Determination (NINAS) urging the Nigerian Government to conduct a referendum, is only part of the strategy by the group to legitimise its plan for the violent dissolution of the Nigerian Federation.
It accused Ilana Omo Oodua and its allies of stockpiling arms and ammunition for its alleged plan to eventually confront the Federal Government in its bid to achieve its “evil objective” of breaking up the Nigerian state under the guise of fighting for an independent Yoruba Nation.
The Forum alleged that Ilana Omo Oodua and its allies “have snatched over 300 AK-47 rifles from military, police and para-military personnel they have attacked and killed across the country,” adding, “Those dangerous weapons are still in possession of these the non-state actors bent on destroying Nigeria. As at the last count, these dangerous groups, including Ilana Omo Oodua, have killed no fewer than 180 military men, 600 other para-military personnel, including policemen.”
Recall that Prof Banji-Akintoye-led Ilana Omo Oodua had recently announced its plan to attend the 76th UNGA scheduled for September to present a petition to the global organisation over its demand for a separate and independent Yoruba Nation.
YAF accused Ilana Omo Oodua of funding the violent activities of the self-styled Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho, currently undergoing trial in the Benin Republic for gun-running following his recent arrest at that country’s airport while attempting to flee.
The Forum alleged that Ilana Omo Oodua “is merely using Igboho to destabilise Nigeria through his nefarious, unpatriotic and violent agitation for an independent Yoruba nation.”
It further accused the Ilana Omo Oodua of getting “foreign funding from some ignorant Nigerians in the Diaspora to fund its plots to “destabilise the current government and the Nigerian nation and eventually truncate the country’s democracy.”
YAF also expressed its displeasure with Ilana Omo Oodua and its allies for constituting “themselves to unrepentant critics of the current government through their frequent acerbic and destructive outbursts and attacks against the government, coupled with the violence they unleash on innocent Nigerian citizens, which have become their pastime.”
It added, “Their obsession to pull down the current government has reached a stage where they have reduced themselves to playing the ignoble role of being the coordinator of all subversive activities against the Nigerian nation and the present administration. Their stock-in-trade is offering unsolicited and unconstructive but destructive criticisms and unleashing violence dressed in the garb of agitation for a separate Yoruba Nation.”
The Forum alleged that three weeks ago Ilana Omo Oodua and its allies “formed an alliance aimed at intensifying their violent attacks against soft targets and the Nigerian state.”
