Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) has condemned the brazen attempt by the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, to brand those advocating for self-determination as violent secessionist agitators, bandits and terrorists engaged in crimes to undermine Nigeria’s national security.

The Vice-Chairman of the Yoruba Self- Determination Movement (YSDM), Banji Ayiloge in a statement countering the Inspector General of Police said that the fact of the matter is that Yoruba people have never engaged in any violent acts during their campaign for self-determination which they strongly believe is their inalienable right under the law.
“ We view the false alarm raised by Usman Baba while speaking at a strategic meeting held with Command Police Commissioners, Zonal AIGs and Deputy Inspectors of Police as red herring designed to tar a group which has been advocating and calling for peaceful campaigns in Yorubaland for self-determination, Mr. Ayiloge emphasized.

There is no amount of blackmail capable of dissuading them from continuing the historic campaign to exercise their legal right to have their own nation through peaceful means.

"There has never been an instance that YSDM as the umbrella group of all Yoruba advocates for self-determination has endorsed violence during their peaceful rallies; on the contrary it has been the trigger-happy police officers and the invading Armed Forces stationed around the Yoruba states that are quick to perpetrate violence on unarmed peaceful protesters by shooting live ammunitions at them without provocation.”

Mr. Ayiloge said It is strange that all of a sudden Mr. Baba is now concerned about people who are amassing weapons in the country but where was he when armed Fulani herdsmen and others from the part of his region have been moving automatic weapons around the country unchallenged by the police? We recalled that the Ondo State Government severally applied to the Federal Government permits for members of the Amotekun to counter automatic weapon touting terrorists from the North, but the Federal Government turned the legitimate request down but continued to encourage Northerners to illegally carry the same weapons.

Meanwhile, the police and Nigerian armed forces were reported to be training vigilantes operating in the Northern part of the country in the training and use of powerful automatic weapons.

For many years now, Fulani herdsmen and some Northern youths have been moving to the Southwest in large numbers and when they were intercepted by Amotekun, they were found to be armed to the teeth with dangerous automatic weapons such as guns, daggers,and charms. These weapons were hidden in big trucks coming from the North. Also transported to the southwest in large numbers were motorcycles which Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists are known to be using in the North to terrorized civilians.

The question is how many of these marauding herdsmen or terrorists have been arrested or charged to court, by the police under Mr. Usman Baba. In fact, the consensus is that in the rare instances when they have been taken to the police stations they were quickly released because of "orders from above."

Mr. Ayiloge added that what has been clear is that as the Fulani dominated administration at the Federal level reached a crescendo, and the leadership of the Police and the Armed Forces are Northerners, all sorts of violence acts have been visited on the Yoruba people either by the Police, the Army or the terrorists from the North.

The Vice-Chairman maintained that Yoruba people are peace-loving people who at the beginning of the campaign, published a thirty-four page code of conduct manual for the use of our youths in their campaign for self-determination.

We state without equivocation that if any group is planning to perpetrate violence in the Southwest, they are Usman Baba’s men who appear to operate with impunity with the tacit approval by the government headed by General Buhari, an Islamist and a Fulani sympathizer.

The YSDM would like to urge the government not to use the forthcoming election to unleash terror on our people and if Usman Baba’s alarm is a smokescreen message to those terrorists who are hiding in our forests as a call to action, we ask him to have a re-think.

For the avoidance of any doubt, YSDM has no interest in the 2023 presidential election and can care less who is either elected or selected. We have urged our people that any election within the current Nigerian state is an exercise in futility which certainly will lead to their further subjugation. We believe our people are sensible enough to heed that warning and we don’t need to force them to do our bidding. Certainly, we abhor violence of any kind and welcome all peace-loving people to the fold of the Yoruba Nation campaigners out of their convictions but certainly not under duress.

We fervently urge the federal government to restrain from using the instruments of coercion at its exclusive disposal to harass or kill our people under the false pretense of maintaining national security.