Oodua Republic: Yoruba Hunters’ Group Vows To Arrest Secessionists

A Yoruba hunters group has dissociated itself from a planned rally to demand a separate country for the Yoruba people of the South West, stressing it would arrest organizers of the rally and hand them over to the police.

A self-professed agitator of proposed Oodua Republic, Chief Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, has said Yoruba youths would troop out to demand Oodua Republic on October 1.

Igboho said this in a video posted on YouTube on Sunday.

The planned secession rally by Ighoho has attracted mixed reactions.

Sunday Igboho lamented the situation in the country and said Yoruba people would march out on October 1 to demand independence for the Yoruba nation.

Igboho, in the video called on the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, Iba Gani Adams, to lead the agitators on the day of the rally.

He, however, said if only 10 persons were present, the rally would go on as planned.

Igboho said, ” We will organise a rally on October 1st. The rally is going to be  on Yoruba freedom from slavery. We will demand Yoruba independence. If they say no, we will ask them to explain to us why we should not go.

He said, ” We are expecting the Aare Ona Kakanfo  ( Iba Gani Adams) to lead us and we will follow. We are not waiting for the traditional rulers. I held a meeting with some traditional rulers but they are not forthcoming. But we will not ask traditional rulers to lead us, our Aare Ona Kakanfo is a brace warrior and we want him to lead us.

“If we are just 10 on October 1, we will embark on the rally. The only thing they can do is to kill us before that time or lock us up. They cannot even arrest us.

“We will tell them we want to go our separate way and it is left to them to give us reasons why we cannot go. We shouldn’t be afraid, those in the North don’t fear the police. It is only here that the police can harass us but. We won’t take that again. “

But the Soludero Hunters Association  while reacting to the planned secession rally dissociated the group from the planned it.

The National President of the hunters group, Nureni Ajijolaanobi, said in an interview with our correspondent in Ibadan that the hunters would arrest the Oodua Republic agitators and hand them over to the police if they embark on the rally.

Ajijolaanobi said the planned rally was a way to cause unrest in the land, saying his group would prevent this.

He said, “If Sunday Igboho goes ahead with his planned rally of  secession on October 1, we Soludero hunters will hand him and his followers over to the police. The Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, the Assistant Inspector General of Police at Zone 11 should be at alert. The is a plan to cause breach of public peace.

“How can he do that? We are not in support of this. Nobody asked him to do this among the yoruba leaders, no traditional ruler in Yorubaland sent him to do this. He wants to cause public disturbance with his planned rally and we will hand him over to the police if he goes ahead.”