Disturbed by the unchecked violent attacks by herdsmen in Oyo State, the pan-Yoruba-socio political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, vowed to take steps to safeguard lives and property in the state.
This was contained in a two-page communiqué issued after a one-day summit entitled: ‘Yoruba nation: For a better today and tomorrow’, held at Jogor Centre, Ibadan.
In the 11-point communiqué jointly signed by Messrs Jare Ajayi and Kehinde Ayoola, Afenifere stated that “security challenges of today are quite unprecedented because of herdsmen attacks, Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping, and so on. Afenifere shall take steps to safeguard the lives and property in Oyo State and Yorubaland in general.”
On the warring Yoruba factions, the body promised to reconcile all Yoruba, starting from Oyo State in order to ensure a broad consensus on most important issues.
The guest speaker at the summit, a retired archbishop of Methodist, Akure, Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, called on the Yoruba nation to re-define its status.
Ladigbolu said: “This indeed is not the first time in history when we, the Yoruba, feel strongly about re-examining our future in the federation, under the political dispensation in which the principles, tenets, and practice of democracy have been steadily assaulted, eroded and subverted. We, the Yoruba, are inherently a democratic people who tolerate and respect dissent.
But, our collective future could be in peril. We therefore owe it to ourselves and to our collective future to reason together and march together in these perilous times, so as to ensure that when our political and economic interests are threatened as they have been for long, we shall speak with one voice, and pitch our tent together for our collective sanity, security and safety.”
