The Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere wants the South West governors to urgently rise up and defend the rights of Yoruba people to live peacefully on their land and in a secured environment.
The group warned it could no longer continue to fold its hands and allow provocative and wanton killings of its citizens by suspected herdsmen across its domain.
It hinged its warning on the recent fracas in Ile-Ife, Osun State, where several people were killed, property worth millions of naira destroyed and arrest was made by security agents.
Spokesman of Afenifere, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, yesterday said the latest assault, which led to the Ife crisis presented it with an opportunity to resolve the matter of conflict between Yoruba and the Fulani once and for all.
“The Yoruba are mainly an agrarian people, whose way of life are now being disrupted by people who roam around with cattle destroying farmlands, attacking our villages and killing our people.”
The group also said the governors of the region cannot afford to fail their people in these terrible times, as it also appealed to Governor Rauf Aregbesola to ensure that there will be no official prejudging the Ife crisis until proper investigations are conducted.
It lamented that its people way of lives are being violently disrupted with sheer impunity “we shall not take it anymore. We therefore demand that the Federal Government should sit with us urgently, and with other nationalities affected and who may be interested in resolving this matter without further delay.”
Afenifere also flayed what it described the lackadaisical approach of the various security agents in the fracas.Meanwhile, the acting Governor of Kaduna State, Mr. Barnabas Bala Bantex yesterday met leaders of Yoruba, Igbo and other communities in the state to assist in dousing tension that may lead to reprisal attacks to the crisis in Ile-Ife.
Specifically, the acting governor warned against those trying to incite unnecessary tensions in the state because of events elsewhere in the country.
Bantex said such persons should desist from circulating videos and images with inciting commentary and calls to citizens for reprisals.He charged the community leaders to prevail on their subjects to uphold peace in the state, remain calm and firmly reject any attempt to drag residents of the state into events happening elsewhere in the country.
He urged residents to continue to uphold peace and harmony, and ensure that they resist and reject any attempt to disrupt the peace and tranquility currently prevailing in the state.
Besides, Arewa leaders had earlier cautioned against the use of ethnicity and religion to incite crisis in any part of the country.Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), in a statement, called for calm, understanding and vigilance among various communities that have lived together in peace and harmony, saying that they should “always exercise restraint in their interaction.”and utterances that may likely degenerate into crises.”
