Alleged Yoruba Nation agitators swooped on the Oyo State Government Secretariat, Agodi in Ibadan, the state capital on Saturday, 13 April 2024. According to eyewitnesses the masked men were stationed at different locations within the area. An incident that sent inhabitants and road users along the routes into a frenzy. Businesses and residents around Bodija, Ikolaba, and Awolowo were said to have quickly locked their shops and doors as some who were about to open for the day’s business turned back. Security operatives on duty at the secretariat were hit with an element of surprise making it difficult to contain the agitators until the arrival of policemen from the state command and other anti-crime agencies in conjunction with members of the Nigerian Army, 2 Division, who disarmed them.
TheLink News also gathered that operatives of the state vigilante-type security network ‘Amotekun’ were spotted on the ground. Several road users were reported making circumspect diversions as others scurried to safety through various routes.
Disowning the situation, the leader of the Yoruba Self Determination group, Professor Banji Akintoye and Yoruba Nation Activist, Chief Sunday Adeyemo aka Sunday Igboho have distanced themselves from the agitators saying they were not aware or in support of the agitators and their actions.
Akintoye said those involved were not fighting for Yoruba interests but against the Yorubas in their conduct. He said available information indicated the group appointed an interim government for the Yoruba Nation and decided to take over the region from the Oyo State secretariat, which informed the deployment of men in military camouflage. Prof Akintoye said: “I am not connected; I have no contact and I do not know anything about Onitiri and her group. I don’t know what they are doing. I learnt they are engaged in some sort of insanity in Ibadan but that is entirely they, and it has nothing to do with me or people like Chief Sunday Igboho who are working with me. We are the authentic Yoruba Nation Movement. We are not connected. We are the people fighting for Youna Nation’s freedom and we will win the war peacefully and in an orderly manner. They are not struggling for the Yoruba Nation; they are struggling against the Yoruba Nation. I was not aware of the situation that happened in Ibadan until I was informed by Chief Sunday Igboho this morning. I am not part of it. They are not from us. They are followers of Onitiri. It is a lunatic fringe. We in this struggle won’t act in such a manner.”
In unfolding events, Dupe Onitiri-Abiola who claims to be one of the late business mogul Chief M.K.O. Abiola’s many wives and a former Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) flag bearer for the 2015 Lagos State governorship election; has also been seen making proclamations on behalf of the Yoruba Nation group in yet unconfirmed videos circulating on Social Media.
