South West may be attacked in coming weeks, Yoruba group claims

Apapo Oodua Koya (AOKOYA) has warned that only critical intervention will save the Southwest region from bank robberies and kidnapping in the next few weeks.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo had raised the alarm on the plan to Fulanise and Islamise Nigeria.

The coalition of several pan-Yoruba groups said if not checked, the plan would also morph into attacks on Yoruba assets like railways, water corporations and thermal stations.

In a statement signed by the president, Col. Abimbola Sowunmi (rtd.), and the deputy secretary for publicity, Mr. Ismail Abiodun, AOKOYA commended Obasanjo for his courage in disclosing the plot by some Fulani leaders to re-invent the 1804 jihad, but called on the Yoruba to take charge of their future and not to entrust it to professional politicians.

The group said it once submitted a report that took it over six months to put together to prominent Yoruba leaders, but no concise action was taken on it.

It, however, expressed gladness that Obasanjo summoned the courage to open the tinderbox.

“The latest covert information received this week is that the armed Fulani groups are working on guerilla fashion right on Yoruba territories. The armed groups are also mushrooming armed cells in Yoruba cities.

“In the next few weeks, we warn, the Southwest will see upsurge in bank robberies, rural and urban kidnapping. If not checked, this will definitely develop into attacks on Yoruba strategic assets like railways, water corporations and thermal stations. We are dealing with two versions: The Islamic extremist groups and Fulani ethnic supremacists. Both are guided by the instinct of fear for survival and are driven with the same mindset of conquest and domination with a false sense of political destiny they believed was ordained by their own god,” the group stated.

According to AOKOYA, Obasanjo’s position reflects the findings it made available to the public last week to the extent that Yoruba forests currently host 1,123 armed cells of Fulani herdsmen, wondering why the Southwest region was selected for vicious attacks.

The plot, it said, is fuelled by the mentality that once the Southwest, being the economic hub of the country, is subdued, the entire country would fall like a pack of cards.

“It is erroneous to think that the problem at hand was a direct product of the All Progressives Congress (APC) victory. The two major political parties are repositories of elements that support the on-going madness in the country.”