Posted on: 08:57 Sat, 05 Dec 2015



The Pan-Yoruba militant group, Oodua
Peoples Congress (OPC), has alerted
security agencies in the country of
alleged moves by the pro-Biafran
agitators to shift their campaign to
Yorubaland for ulterior motives.

The OPC specifically called for
increased surveillance on the
organizers of ‘The World Igbo Day
2015’ proposed to be hosted in
Yorubaland this Saturday alleging
“ulterior motives” behind the
hurried arrangement.

While expressing fears over the
precarious security situation in
Nigeria, the group urged the security
agencies and Yoruba leaders of
thought to guard against threat to
peace in the South West zone.

In a press release from the National
Coordinating Council of the OPC
signed by Comrade Akinpelu
Adeshina, copies of which were
made available to journalists in
Ibadan on Friday, the pan-Yoruba
group stated that it was “compelled
to make this call given the precarious
and heightened security situation in
the country and the world over.”

“We see the attempt to bring the
World Igbo Day celebration – in
whatever guise – which is normally
celebrated on the 29th September
annually to the Yorubaland as a
mischievous and diabolically
crafted attempt to cause chaos in
and destabilize Yorubaland; and
this we will repulse and reject with
everything at our disposal,” OPC
stated.

The statement read in part: “As
much as we believe in the right of
every person and group to self-
determinatyion, we are of the firm
belief that this particular event is
mischievously conceived and
earmarked to be hosted in any part
of Yorubaland.



“It is true that the Yoruba are a
liberal, peaceful and
accommodating people, yet we are
no foll and should not be treated as
fools.

“The South West part of Nigeria is
the most secure and peaceful part
of Nigeria today and should
therefore not be turned into a
theatre of war or avoidable crisis.

“For too long, the Yoruba have
accommodated all other tribes and
nationalities like good hosts. We
have not minded the odium and
other atrocities committed against
our people, and on our ancestral
land.

“During the last election
campaigns, it was the height of all
insults when the Igbos in Lagos
derided and mudsling our highly
revered traditional rulers,
particularly the Oba of Lagos.

“Never in history has it been
recorded that a Yoruba person or
group crossed the Niger River into
either the northern or eastern part
of the country to go and vilify,
desecrate or insult any of their
paramount rulers for political or
any other reasons.

“The leeway to do business and
own properties which the Igbo and
other nationalities enjoy in
Yorubaland has not been
reciprocated for the Yoruba
elsewhere, thus it would only be
fair to warn anyone or group that
‘if our relationship cannot be
mutually beneficial, it should in no
way be injurious to us as a people.

“The recent infractions of the
Fulani cattle-herders in Yorubaland
are the last slap to the cheek that
we are ready to accommodate as a
people.

“We have also not forgotten the
attempt to overrun Yorubaland and
turn it into the theatre of war
during the Biafran attempt to cede
from Nigeria.

“In conclusion, we call on all
Yoruba elders, leaders of thought
and the commoners to wake up to
the realities of the day and stand
up to be counted in this effort to
maintain the continued peaceful
and harmonious existence that has
always been the pride of the
Yorubas,” it said.