By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
The National Leader of the Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, Professor Banji Akintoye, on Monday, intensified his call for separation from Nigeria asking South West governors and monarchs in the region to declare September 23 as Yoruba unity day.
He, however, alleged that suspected Fulani bandits have killed no fewer than 29,000 Yoruba people and continue to rape women and subject others to all sorts of atrocities.
He said this in a statement to mark the anniversary of Yoruba Unity Day.
Akintoye, a renowned historian, emphasized that given the continued threats to life and destruction of farmlands, the only option left is to separate Yoruba Nation from Nigeria.
He said: “The only viable and sustainable answer to all this horrible situation is to separate our Yoruba nation from Nigeria, and to establish our own country where we shall be able to exercise our sovereignty to provide security for our land and people, and where we shall be able to run our economy decently in the way that we Yoruba know.”
Claiming that the Yoruba unity day was being celebrated in Ile Ife and Ibadan, he said: “In the rural areas of our homeland, where probably the majority of our people live, the Fulani people who are determined to seize land for a homeland of their own, are daily killing our people, have killed a roughly estimated 29,000 of our people, are raping our women, kidnapping men, women and children, extorting millions of Naira in ransom for the kidnapped, destroying farms, food barns and villages.”
Calling on the South West governors and traditional rulers to adopt the unity day as a public holiday, Akintoye said: “Obas, the fathers of our nation, should adopt this Yoruba unity day in their Councils of Obas in all our Yoruba States. I urge that our Governors, when they assemble in their Southwest Governors meeting, to adopt this Yoruba unity day for all our states.”
While asking other Yoruba people to join him in his self-determination struggle, he stated: “We are seriously pushing for the separation of our Yoruba nation from Nigeria and the Nigerian disaster is different. Our perception of the Nigerian situation is not self-centred. It is not emotional. It is intellectually sound and realistic. And it is accepted by at least 80 per cent of all our Yoruba at home and in the Diaspora. Objectively, there is good reason to fear now that the Nigerian situation could destroy our Yoruba nation.”
On the creation of the security outfit, Amotekun, he said: “There was some hope when our Governors created Amotekun some years ago to resist the Fulani rampages, but Fulani people in control of the Federal Government have contrived the impotence of Amotekun. The Fulani terrorists are also becoming increasingly audacious in crimes and barbarism in our main cities.
“Our kinsman who won election as President of Nigeria is being made to face ever-mounting harassment, including threats of military overthrow, threats of wholesale regional rebellion, and even a defiant declaration of war.