Only Restructuring Can Stop Secession – Yoruba Group

The Coalition of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups has called on the Federal Government to ensure restructuring of the country before 2023 elections.

The Secretary General of the Coalition of Yoruba Self- Determination Groups, Dr Steve Abioye, in a statement on Friday said restructuring was the only way to stop the growing agitations for secessionists.

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The statement read, “Government, as far as our coalition is concern, can’t afford to eat its cake and have it.

” If they want secessionist agitations to stop then the idea of going back to the constitution the founding fathers of Nigeria came up with and regional federalism should be looked into before 2023 election comes up.”

The group also accused the Federal Government of deceipt following its alleged plan to extradite a Yoruba self-determination activist, Sunday Igboho, to Nigeria from Republic of Benin.

Igboho, who escaped from a deadly raid on his residence by the Department of State Services on July 1 went underground and was arrested by security agents at Cotonou airport while he and his wife Ropo were traveling to Germany.

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His wife was released but Igboho has been in detention since July 19 when he was arrested. The Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami ( SAN) recently raised the hope of many that the Federal Government was considering a political solution to resolve the crisis.

But reacting to the reports that the DSS had filed for extradition of Igboho, Abioye said, “That the Federal Government is trying to extradite Sunday Igboho is coming out as a total negation of its earlier noble position of trying to employ political means of addressing secessionist agitation across the land. It sparks up insincerity!

“For the Federal Government to ensure that serenity pervades the political space, let them drop their confrontational approach and create a roundtable approach where compromise can be reached among the conflicting interests.”

Igboho, who is one of the strong agitators for self-determination for Yoruba people, recently got a judgment in his favour at an Oyo State High Court in Ibadan.

The court held that self-determination agitation was his right and Justice Labiran Akintola also awarded N20.5billion damages against the secret police for invading his house and destroying his property.

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