The Ekiti State capital, Ado-Ekiti, was on Saturday agog as hundreds of Yoruba nation agitators, under the aegis of Ilana Omo Oodua, trooped to the town from neighbouring South-West states for a rally.
The agitators, who were led by popular Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo also knowns as Sunday Igboho, stormed the capital city to demand the independence of Yorubaland.
The agitators, comprising traditionalists, masquerades, women, traders, youths, motorcycle riders, artisans, and others, wore attires with the inscription ‘Omo Oduduwa ni mi.
The protesters who converged on the Fajuyi park took a long walk through Okesa junction to Ojumose to Erekesan and to the Palace of Ewi of Ado-Ekiti to pay homage.
They defied heavy joint security presence deployed to different strategic places as they marched through streets of the Ado metropolis, chanting various solidarity and liberation songs.
Among the solidarity songs included “No going back on the Yoruba nation”, We are ready to go”; Enough is Enough”; We are not slaves to Fulani”; No retreat, no surrender”; “Let Hausa go their way, let Fulani go their own way and Igbo people should also go.”
However, the policemen did not disrupt the gathering in any way as some of them said they were deployed to protect the agitators and prevent the breakdown of law and order.
Addressing the mamoth crowds, Igboho said that no efforts would be spared to rescue the Yoruba nation from the firm grips and vestiges of the Fulanis who have been oppressing the people of the southwest from time immemorial.
He said that it is high time Yoruba nation break away from Nigeria and chart a new course for itself, adding that the Nigerian environment has been consistently harsh to the Yoruba people at the advantage of the Fulanis.
Igboho noted that everything would be done to ensure the emancipation of the region from the clutches of “evil-genius oppressors”, saying that the Yoruba nation would break away latest by the ending of December, this year.
He said that the people of the southwest have suffered in the last six years of the present administration and that the only option for the Yoruba to break the yoke of the continued subjugation is to secede.
“Today, we are here to sensitise our people that we can no longer ensure the sufferings being meted out to us by Fulani feudal Lord’s. We are no longer slaves under them.
“The South has oil and water and other natural resources, but Fulani is the ones enjoying them. Most of our university graduates are Okada riders being what our politicians who tell lies recklessly have made us to be.
“Yoruba is the most educated race in Nigeria, but are these graduates getting jobs, no. Rather, our politicians would be buying motorbikes for them for Okada riding. This is wrong and would have to stop. Can they allow their children to be riding Okada?
“Today, they have shared everything that belongs to Nigeria among themselves. The President is a Fulani man, the Inspector General of Police, Director-General of the Department of State Services, the Chief of Army Staff, Chairmen of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agencies and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and Comptrollers General of Immigration and Customs are all Fulanis.
“Let me say this emphatically, we won’t vote in the Southwest in 2023. We need a government of our own. The Fulanis are kidnapping us and collecting ransom, killing and raping us and our leaders are watching because of politics. This will no longer be tolerated
“The next line of action now is that we are entering the bush to chase away these Fulani herders. We don’t want them on our lands again. We will pursue them just like I have been saying,” he stated.
THE NATION
