A leading Yoruba group, the Yoruba Global Alliance (YGA), has said President Muhammadu Buhari should be held responsible for the attack and killings that occured, on Sunday, at the St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State.
The group said this in a press release by its National President (Worldwide), Dr. Amos Arogundade Akingba, and Chairman of Council, High Chief Tola Adeniyi, in reaction to the gruesome incident.
The group said YGA, its allies, the Yoruba Global Alliance, the Yoruba Global Congress, the Yoruba Unseen and millions of others in the Diaspora, unequivocally hold Buhari accountable for the degeneracy of the country’s security architecture which has made incessant killings of innocent peoples all over Nigeria a common and frequent occurrence
“We recall with anguish Buhari’s invitation, publicly announced in Cairo on December 11 2019, to all Fulani in West Africa to emigrate, albeit, an incursion into Nigeria since no visas or passports are required of them, the invitation we considered as totally irresponsible, dangerous and reckless.
“It was clear to all discerning minds that General Buhari’s invitation was directed at the dregs of the Fulani stock knowing full well that no successful Fulani would leave their places of abode to come to Nigeria.
“It was people without skills, without jobs, without any means of livelihood that were surreptitiously imported to the country for the Devil to employ.
“This announcement was made at a time Buhari had shut down all Nigerian land borders to its neighbouring West African states since August of that year!,” the group stated in the press release
YGA also accused politicians across the land, especially governors, state and federal legislators and local government chairpersons of culpability in the horrendous and gloomy insecurity that has enveloped the entire Nigeria landscape.
It said the timidity, sycophancy, selfishness and insensitivity of the politicians and elected public office holders cry to high heavens.
“The systemic murders in Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Igbo land, Ijaw land and Yorubaland will not stop unless and until the politicians elected by the people are courageous enough to challenge the Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces and pointedly put it to his face that the buck stops at his desk.
“There is no better time than now to pass a vote of no confidence in this president, consider impeaching him, though a tall order or ask him to step down due to his inability to curb the incessant killings by these foreign Fulani marauders he had invited to pollute and terrorize the country.
“We want to remind these politicians that the good action they refuse to take today due to their enjoyment of security details will haunt them in the future after they have finished transient terms.
“This was the similar fate that had become the fate of many in the past and in recent times.
“It is regrettable that from all available records President Buhari is the only person blocking the creation of state police in the country.
“The mayhem in Owo [on Sunday] could not have happened that brazenly if Ondo State had a well equipped state police,” the group said.
It further said: “Pampered and condoned terrorists let loose on Nigeria space could be having their field day as a revenge on the forces that created them. They should never again bring their untamed madness to Yorubaland.
“The Yoruba, because of our level of civilization and sophistication are very slow to anger, very accommodating and forgiving, very rational and philosophical, but are definitely not stupid or cowardly.
“Let the notice go out there that the Yoruba do not joke with blood and land; these two items are held sacred. The blood will always avenge itself and Ile Ogere Af’oko Ye’ri swallows its traducers.
“Those taunting the Yoruba should take heed. They should read their history books. They should ask about the sacred Iroko Oluwere. They should understand that no one has monopoly of violence. They should remember the Agbekoya riots.”
YGA also called on prominent traditional rulers, including the Ooni of Ife, Sultan of Sokoto, Shehu of Bornu, Awujale of Ijebu, Tor Tiv, Obong of Calabar, Obi of Onitsha, Oba of Benin, Etsu Nupe, Aku Uka of Wukari, Olowo of Owo and Olubadan of Ibadan, to immediately summon top government political/military functionaries to a roundtable.
It said the roundtable should include President Buhari as well as past Heads of State to resolve the insecurity menace in the country before the country descends into an irreversible dungeon.
“The monarchs as the traditional and natural leaders of their communities must begin to assert their annointed positions and recognize politicians, from councilor to president, as our servants.
“Political leaders were elected by the people to serve the people and should not be allowed, through sycophancy, to turn themselves to ‘Lord and Master’ which usually is the beginning and enabler of dictatorship, tyranny and absolutism.
“There is no country in the civilized world where the people ‘worship’ their politicians the way Nigerians do.
“The Yoruba Global Alliance strongly condemns the so-called political parties and their members for holding rallies and conventions while the country is boiling and the people, they are pretending to serve, are being routinely slaughtered.
“Certainly, this is not the time for election jamboree, or preparing for population census or the mirage of restructuring or dubious constitution amendment.
“What should be uppermost now is how to de-amalgamate the country’s unworkable marriage and let indigenous nationalities artificially and forcibly yoked together go their separate ways.
“We reiterate that the ancient Kingdom of Owo is too important to the United Yoruba Kingdoms [UYK] as the birthplace of our modern political evolution and should never again be stained by the blood-thirsty messengers of Hell.
“The Yoruba Global Alliance, while condoling with the peaceful people of Owo and the Ondo State government, has declared a 7-day mourning period for our departed Yoruba Nation compatriots.
“May the innocent lives rudely and fiendishly terminated avenge their animalistic termination,” the group concluded.
