This will lead to war – Yoruba people blow hot over quit notice from north

Following a 72-hour ultimatum issued by Arewa youths for Yoruba ethnic group to leave the 19 northern states, Yoruba leaders yesterday warned of consequences of such ultimatum and asked the northern leaders to call their youths to order.

The ultimatum by the Arewa youths was in response to a declaration of Yoruba nation last Wednesday by Yoruba activist, Sunday Igboho who also advised his kith and kin in the north to start coming back home. Igboho did not however ask the northerners living in the South West to leave the region but merely stated that the Yoruba no longer wished to be part of Nigeria in view of grave injustice done to the region by the Nigerian government.

Responding to Igboho’s declaration, the Arewa Youth Assembly in a statement signed yesterday by its spokesman, Mohammed Salihu Danlami, said Igboho should, in the next 72 hours, evacuate his people from the North or they would help him to do so.

In the statement, Arewa youths quoted Igboho as having said it was time for Yoruba nation and would no longer accommodate and accept the presence of northerners.

In their immediate reaction to the 72-hour ultimatum, the Yoruba leaders cautioned the northern youths against beating the drum of war and warned of consequences of such action.

Reacting to the ultimatum, the Agbekoya Farmers Society of Nigeria, yesterday, warned Arewa youths of the consequences of 72hours ultimatum and forceful ejection of Yoruba from the North, Vanguard reports.

The group, in a statement signed by its President-General and National Publicity Secretary, Chief Kamorudeen Okikiola and Mr. Olatunji Bandele respectively, cautioned the Arewa youths to desist from beating the drum of war through their utterances and also called on Northern leaders, governors and politicians to restrain the Northern Youths, advice and guide them accordingly when it comes to public issues.

The statement reads: “Giving 72 hours ultimatum and forceful ejection of Yoruba from the North will bring about retaliation from Southwest and this may cause public disorder which may lead to war. The call by Chief Sunday Adeyemo Igboho asking the Yoruba living in the North to come back home does not warrant an ultimatum and forceful ejection because he himself cannot force any Yoruba who decides to stay back in the north to come back home.

“Nigerians have never experienced this state of insecurity under any democratic government and have never been so divided against themselves like this. We need to reconsider our stance as a country and also re-examine the constitution that binds us together, because it is now very obvious that the 1999 constitution is a major problem. Rather than bind us together, it is tearing us apart”.

The new leader of the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo said yesterday that the continued refusal by President Muhammadu Buhari not to restructure Nigeria may lead to the disintegration of Nigeria. Reacting to the 72-hour ultimatum by some northern youths that Yoruba people should vacate the north, Adebanjo said restructuring will douse calls for such ultimatum.

He said: “That is the pressure we are having from our youths and that is why we have been pressing on Buhari to do restructuring now. All the youths in the country are tired of this administration. All we have been saying is that if we do restructuring, there is no need to pull out of Nigeria.