The pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and socio-political organization, Afenifere, has condemned the invasion of the Oyo State House of Assembly in Ibadan by some suspected Yoruba nation agitators.
Afenifere, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the body, Comrade Jare Ajayi, stated that those who took the said step did not act in the interest of the Yorubas whom they alleged to be representing.
OsunDailyNG recalls that some people who claimed to be Yoruba nation agitators stormed the premises of Oyo State House of Assembly, Agodi Secretariat, Ibadan, regarded as the political capital of Yorubaland, on Saturday.
The invaders, according to a video clip making the rounds, claimed that a purported ‘Democratic Republic of the Yoruba’ had been created out of Nigeria.
Reacting, Afenifere in its statement on Sunday, stated that there is no such thing as the Democratic Republic of Yoruba.
“Yoruba is an important component of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. And as is well known, there cannot be a sovereign republic within an extant sovereign republic
“At the moment, Yoruba are indigenous in Ekiti, Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, and Oyo States and in parts of Kwara, Kogi, Delta and Edo State of Nigeria, just as they are found in some other parts of the world”, he said.
Ajayi conceded that there are a lot of dysfunctionalities in the way Nigeria was being run.
“But solutions to the shortcomings do not lie in violent divisions. Rather, what we should strive for is how the perceived wrongs in the country can be righted.
“Afenifere is of the strong view that President Bola Tinubu administration is taking steps to rejig Nigeria in a manner that would make the country become one that every citizen would be proud of soonest. Restructuring the country is a sure way of accelerating this,” he added.
Afenifere noted that when the country is restructured and regions are allowed to be in control of their own affairs, “Nigeria will become beneficial to everyone.
“This is why we are relentless in our agitation for restructuring!”
