Yoruba groups set aside June 12 for referendum

Say self-determination non-negotiable

Groups, under the platform of Assembly of all Yoruba Groups Worldwide, have set aside June 12 as the day of referendum for the Yoruba on the self-determination agenda.

This resolution and others were reached at the meeting held at the Western Hall, Oyo State Secretariat Complex, Ibadan, with the theme: “The Paramountcy of Yoruba Unity in Tackling The Insecurity Menace in Yorubaland.”

In a communique read by the Founder of Yoruba K’oya Movement, Otunba Deji Osibogun, after the meeting, the groups said that Yoruba self-determination was non-negotiable.

The groups, which urged the Yoruba, especially the elite, to return to protect their land, also tasked every House of Assembly in the South-West to pass a resolution on the state of insecurity in Yorubaland and urged members representing Yoruba constituencies in the Senate and House of Representatives to move a motion on insecurity in Yorubaland within the next 90 days, precisely June 25.

It also urged Yoruba groups to organise relief materials for victims ravaged by insecurity.

All the Yoruba groups were charged to make the unity of purpose a guiding principle, while Yoruba Central Coordinating Council has been proposed.

In a remark, Prof. Banji Akintoye, represented by the Administrative Secretary of Ilana Oduduwa, Dr. Tunde Hamzat, stressed that the call for Yoruba self-determination should not be misconstrued as secession.

Akintoye said the Yoruba nation would be achieved in a peaceful manner through the building of consensus and mobilisation of the people.

Also speaking, Ambassador Yemi Farounbi, stressed that the Yoruba should be ready to defend themselves against threats to their lives.

He charged all Yoruba individuals and groups to bring to bear their intellect, asset and knowledge for the cause of the Yoruba nation.

In the same vein, human rights activist, Femi Falana, who made a phone call into the event, harped on the need for restructuring of the country.

He said that panacea to insecurity in Yorubaland was to go back to the policy of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, urging the Yoruba to go back to the drawing board and discuss how to make the region great again.

The convener of the event, Dr. Victor Taiwo, said that it was time for all the Yoruba to bury their individual ego and come together in unionism for a common purpose, adding that if the Yoruba are united, no forces in the world could come against them.

He, however, suggested that a seven-man central coordinating committee should be established, which will consist of the three most prominent fathers of the Yoruba nation so as to have a secretariat that will serve as Central Co-ordinating Centre and Clearing House to be named Oduduwa Centre.