A group of Yoruba activists, the Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF), has warned those fomenting trouble in the Southwest to desist or risk the wrath of its millions of members across the region.
YAF National Coordinator Adesina Animashaun, in a statement, warned that it would no longer tolerate any individual or group of persons in Yorubaland carrying out any violent plot in the Southwest under the guise of hunting for criminals.
YAF vowed it would no longer fold its hands and watch persons, groups and their collaborators pretending to be protecting the common interests of the people of the South-West “to further destroy the economic and social wellbeing of our people.”
YAF argued the quit notice issued by some individuals, who are neither state actors nor security agents, to some other Nigerians living in the South-West, which resulted in the recent violence witnessed in some parts of the region, was uncalled for and unnecessary.
The Forum stated that the Southwest had yet to recover from the huge losses it suffered during last year’s #EndSARS protests in which individuals and governments lost properties worth trillions of Naira in addition to the invaluable lives of Yoruba and people of other ethnic nationalities killed.
It noted that the masterminds of the recent violence in Ibarapa land had “a more sinister objective of destabilising the Nigerian nation for the selfish political end of their sponsors and paymasters, but merely covering up their agenda with the cloak of fighting for Yoruba freedom.”
YAF, therefore, challenged the police and other security agencies “to unmask both the local and foreign sponsors of these agents of violence.”
The Forum called on the police to take appropriate and urgent actions “to deal decisively with these individuals who are bent on fomenting trouble in the South-West” to nip their evil plans in the bud.
YAF further warned its members would not hesitate to “confront those planning another wave of violence in any part of the South-West under the guise of hunting for criminal elements, because it’s an ill-wind that will blow no one any good.”