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…Advises youths against Nigeria’s disintegration

By Adesina Wahab

A group, the Yoruba Appraisal Forum, YAF, has decried the stoppage of its peace and sensitisation rally by the police in Lagos on Friday.

YAF expressed regret that the police in the state could not distinguish between it and other groups claiming to be championing Yoruba self-determination and independence with the disguised objective of destabilising the country.

On Thursday, Lagos Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement warned that the police would deal with YAF members should the group go ahead with its scheduled peace rally/sensitisation motorcade planned to hold at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota.

The YAF National Coordinator, Adeshina Animashaun, in a statement on Friday, in response to the police ban of its programme, said contrary to the police misrepresentation of the group, it has consistently campaigned for peace in Yorubaland and Nigeria at large and has never been found to have been involved in any violence in the course of its numerous sensitisation activities throughout the South-West states.

“Ordinarily, we wouldn’t have bothered to offer any response to the Lagos State Police Command’s stoppage of our planned peace rally/sensitisation motorcade earlier scheduled to hold today, Friday, July 16, 2021, at the Gani Fawehinmi Freedom Park, Ojota, Lagos, but for the manifest misinformation and misrepresentation contained in a statement on the matter by the state Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi.

“Firstly, we have to quickly state that YAF has nothing to do with the Yoruba Nation agitators. We are a law-abiding coalition of other Yoruba groups under the aegis of the Yoruba Appraisal Forum, whose main objective remains peace advocacy throughout Yorubaland and all over Nigeria.

“We want to make it abundantly clear that YAF is not affiliated to any group or individuals promoting or championing the disintegration or dismemberment of the Nigerian Federation.

“We believe in the unity and indivisibility of the Nigerian nation.It’s unfortunate that the police misunderstood and misconstrued our peace rally/sensitisation motorcade.

“We want to state here YAF had held this same peace rally/sensitisation motorcade in all the other states in the South-West in the past few months without any record of any untoward occurrence.

“The PPRO has, therefore, woefully failed to separate the wheat from the chaff by his wholesale tagging of YAF as a Yoruba Nation agitator group in his Thursday’s statement. This is unfortunate and unacceptable.

“YAF is, however, not deterred by the current situation. Infact, this police action against us has served to further encourage us not to relent in our consistent struggle for peace throughout Yorubaland and all over our dear country, Nigeria.

“YAF believes there is no better time than now for all hands to be on deck for peace in Yorubaland, the South-West and the entire Nigerian nation.”

The Forum also advised South-West youths against breaching the existing peace in the region and aiding certain groups and individuals acting under the guise of agitating for an independent Yoruba nation to destabilise the region.

It also appealed to the government, the various security agencies and other major stakeholders in Yorubaland to rise to the challenge and ensure no individual or group violates the peace or instigate violence in the South-West.