Tension In Oyo: Okunniyi Cautions IGP Adamu Over Sunday Igboho

...Says Yoruba Elders, Traditional Rulers Will Resolve All Issues

From Ayobami Ife,  Abeokuta 

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, Veteran Wale Okunniyi on Sunday, cautioned the IGP against taking action that could further exacerbate the rising tension in Yorubaland.

Okunniyi, a distinguished delegate to the 2014 National Confab warned that seeking to arrest the Yoruba nationalist activist, Igboho over his radical intervention to quell the unfortunate spate of kidnapping, ransom taking and murder in Southwest forest, will escalate the tension in the region rather than abate it. 

The Spokesperson of Project Nigeria Movement, PNM, a group of Senior Citizens and Statesmen/women, in a statement by Olubori Obafemi, his Media Assistant, further warned that such arrest order at this precarious time and on the issue of the pervasive criminality within southwest forest would only be a wrong decision. 

According to Okunniyi, the current activism of Sunday Igboho is very popular among the Yorubas and such precipitate arrest if carried out, might trigger an unintended civil strife in the Southwest.

The Spokesperson of Pro National Conference Organizations, PRONACO, however, hinted that the elders and traditional rulers in the region were already consulting on the best way to handle the matter.

He explained that a major intervention will be made soon in respect of the crisis. 

He said : "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 Sunday 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."