The group fixed a rally for that date, which is Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary, to draw global attention to the need to “liberate Yoruba race.”
The Yoruba World Congress has called on Yorubas across the country, who will be joining the protest on October 1, 2020, to avoid a clash with security operatives.
The group fixed a rally for that date, which is Nigeria’s 60th independence anniversary, to draw global attention to the need to “liberate Yoruba race.”
Speaking ahead of the scheduled rally, Prof Banji Akintoye, President-General of YWC, urged protesters not to engage in confrontation with police as violence will cause distractions to its agitation.
He said, "For Yoruba people at home in Nigeria, my message is to repeat my earlier messages: please keep our rallies thoroughly peaceful. Never display any rowdy or disruptive behaviour. Never get into any argument or confrontation with law enforcement personnel. If the police anywhere ask you not to rally or to dispense, disperse peacefully.
"Always remember that your message is too important to allow confrontations or distractions. Your Yoruba nation is powerful. It commands the intellectual, human and other resources to achieve its self-determination in a peaceful and law abiding manner.
"It is good to hold rallies. Rallies help to spread the message. But we must not allow our rallies to create outcomes that can disrupt, obstruct or distract from our central message.”
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Prof Akintoye commended Yoruba outside Nigeria for joining the call for Oduduwa republic, saying “Yoruba people at home are grateful that you are showing the world the horrific conditions in which Yoruba people live in Nigeria.
"As Yoruba people in Diaspora hold mass rallies in many countries of the world on October one, I very warmly congratulate and thank them all.
"All Yoruba people back home in Nigeria are watching them with joy, gratitude and pride.
"The barbarous invasion of our land by a people, the Fulani, who are part of Nigeria, the fiendish killings of our people and the destruction of our homes and means of livelihood. And the massive importations of armed men to our towns and cities.”
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