The pan-Yoruba socio-political organization, Afenifere, has said the Owo killings carried out by some unknown gunmen at St Francis Catholic Church, Owo Ondo State, was a war carried out against the Yoruba race.
This is coming as Afenifere’s General Secretary, Mr Sola Ebiseni, in a statement, lamented that the present administration was “helpless and irresponsible in securing life and property, an irrefutable sign of the failure of the Nigerian state.”
Ebiseni said: “The horrendous incident at the St. Francis Catholic Church in the ancient Yoruba city of Owo, Ondo State, where scores of worshippers were killed by herdsmen wielding most sophisticated weapons is not just an attack on the Church and the psyche of all decent people all over the world but a deliberate show at testing the self-defence strength of the Yoruba people in resisting the importation of the horrible culture of violence into our land.
“In all of these, the Federal Government of Nigeria, which against federal precepts, continues to monopolise security and its architecture, have proven most helpless and irresponsible in securing life and property, an irrefutable sign of the failure of the Nigerian state.
“We say in clear terms that the noiseless glides of the Amotekun is no sign of fear and that this stamp on the tail of the viper is one too many.”
Meanwhile, the leader of the Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, IOOW, Professor Banji Akintoye, described the deadly attack as a declaration of war against the Yoruba people.
Responding through the Communications Secretary of IOOW, Mr. Maxwell Adeleye, Akintoye urged Governor Akeredolu to declare an emergency against the activities of Fulani herdsmen in the state with immediate effect.
He said: “We have stated very expressly that the Yoruba people need to negotiate their exit from Nigeria as a matter of urgency but our Partisan Political Actors in Yorubaland never took us serious. We warned them that there’s fire on the mountain but we were mocked because of their personal aggrandizement.
“Today, we have all been encircled, most especially, in Lagos. For herdsmen to have the effrontery of bombarding a church in Yorubaland to kill about 85 people shows that we are now in danger.
“My urgent advice to Governor Akeredolu is to pick up the gauntlet and declare an emergency against the activities of all Fulani herdsmen in the state with immediate effect.”
