Disturbed by the rising tension in Southwest, Nigeria over the arrest order issued for Yoruba Nationalist Activist, Sunday Adeyemo Igboho by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, Veteran Olawale Okunniyi, a distinguished delegate to the 2014 National Confab and Spokesperson of Project Nigeria Movement, PNM, a group of Senior Citizens and Statesmen/women on Sunday cautioned the IGP not to further exacerbate the rising tension in the Southwest by arresting Yoruba nationalist Activist, Igboho over his radical intervention to quell the unfortunate spate of kidnapping, ransom taking and murder in Southwest forest.
Okunniyi, in a statement issued by his media office on Sunday warned that such arrest order at a time like this and on the issue of the pervasive criminality within southwest forest will only aggravate the situation rather than resolve it, as the current activism of Igboho is popular among the Yorubas and such precipitate arrest might trigger off an unintended civil strife in the Southwest.
The Spokesperson of Pro National Conference Organizations, PRONACO further informed that Elders and Traditional Rulers in the region are already consulting on the best way to handle the matter and a major intervention will be made soon.
“The Yorubas are really aggrieved and traumatised at the moment over the random kidnapping, raping, maiming and killings of their kinsmen and women in their forest by those considered as criminal herders, which has therefore made the radical intervention of Igboho popular among the Yorubas. So any attempt to arrest him by the State may backfire instead of resolving the heightening tension in land. What I know for sure is that Yoruba Elders and Traditional rulers are already consulting on the best solution on this matter” Okunniyi said.
