Another frontier for heightened security activities is currently opening in Western Nigeria, the hotbed of the agitation for Oodua Republic with the emergence of a budding yet-to-be named militant group. Its emergence is likely to further overstretch the security forces fighting insecurity in all fronts across the country.
In the North-East axis of the country, the Boko Haram insurgency has lasted for over a decade with dire humanitarian challenges. In the North-West flank, bandits that were allegedly recruited as part of the controversial 2015 election game plan, are still busy wrecking havoc and depleting the number of the security forces.
While the Niger Delta easily erupts with its Oil War when unduly provoked by the Nigerian state, the situation in Eastern Nigeria is taking a turn for the worse since the arrest and detention of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of IPOB, a mass movemnet of Biafra agitators.
With the worrisome signal from Western Nigeria adding to the country’s burning pot of troubles, there is a some how urgent need by the authorities to hammer out the issue of Nigeria’s problematic national question before the whole unfolding drama boils over.
In the meantime, in a seeming daring move, they have given the Fulani and Hausa peoples in the region 30 days to leave Yorubaland, threatening that the Fulani and Hausa people who refused to exit the area will have themselves to blame for whatever will befall them at the expiration of the ultimatum.
The Yoruba militants are accusing the Fulani community in the area of allegedly masterminding abductions, killings, and other criminal activities in the region.
“Fulani cannot take over our land from us. We own our land and we won’t allow anybody to take it from us. Some people are intimidating us but we won’t succumb to their threat. For the Fulani living here, we are not fighting them, if they can live with us peacefully. Our fear is about Fulani taking over our land, kidnapping, and killing our people’’, a leader of the militants who gave his name as Sunday Oyo said.
The masked Yoruba militants said the 30-day ultimatum started from Saturday, September 25, 2021 insisting that the herders among them should leave along with their cattle.
Oyo, according to local sources within the Yoruba nation agitating community, is urging President Muhammadu Buhari to advise “his people” to leave Yorubaland within a month or face the consequences of disobedience, which they claimed might be gruesome.
The militants noted that though the Buhari administration was able to ensure the arrest of Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, a leading agitator, Oyo is boasting that he is different.
Igboho was arrested in Benin Republic in July while he and his wife were trying to travel to Germany. He has since been detained in the country.
But, Oyo is saying “we are using this opportunity to warn President Muhammadu Buhari that he should immediately evacuate all Fulanis and Hausas from Yorubaland. We don’t want to have a relationship with you, let everyone go their separate ways. The torture is too much, let’s have our nation, and you have your nation, and be careful or else…
“We give you 30 days to leave Yorubaland generally. You have arrested Sunday Igboho, I am Sunday Oyo, we will deal with you. After 30 days, whatever your experience is, you should accept it as your fate.”
The detained Sunday igboho had similarly issued a threat on January 22 when he visited Igangan, a town in the Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, insisting that Fulani people must leave Yorubaland.
“We will evict them from our land if they insist on kidnapping our people. I am assuring Yoruba people, especially the residents of Oyo State that there is no cause for alarm. What we started today does not only have to do with Oyo State; we are going to evict Fulani people in the entire Yoruba land,” he had said.
Since his emergence as one of the masterminds of self-determination for the Oodua/Yoruba Nation, Igboho has been facing several travails.
