22nd April, 2014
Kazeem Ugbodaga
The Afenifere Renewal Group, ARG, has said the Yoruba people in southwest Nigeria will defend themselves by any means if attacked by Islamic terrorist group, Boko Haram and calls for extreme vigilance in the peaceful region.
Wale Oshun, ARG National Chairman, in a statement issued on Monday, said that any attack on Yorubaland would amount to a declaration of war on the peace loving people. He stated that, in as much as the Yoruba people have always been peaceful and were not, whether directly or indirectly, complicit in the collapse of development and security, factors which had been labelled as responsible for the rise of terrorism.
“We need to add that the Yoruba people will neither fold their arms if attacked and will be forced to respond in whatever shape or form deemed fit,” the statement read.
He said all residents of southwest Nigeria, especially the traditional institutions, should not to take lightly the recent threat by Boko Haram in the latest video released to AFP.
In the video, the sect leader, Abubakar Shekau, claimed responsibility for the Nyanya bombing and threatened “more imminent attacks” across the country. “We are in your city and you don’t know where we are,” Shekau said.
“ARG is calling on all the residents in the southwest of Nigeria to take this threat very seriously, and be vigilant. We call on the residents to report to security agencies, monarchs, traditional leaders and the offices of the governors any suspicious movement of men and materials that come to their notice.
“ARG wishes to alert the traditional institutions, from the highly revered monarchs to the Baales (the village heads) and Mogajis (Clan Heads), to their responsibility towards their subjects in this dire time,” he said.
He added that all the leaders of the people at every level would have no reason, through acts of omission or commission, to allow total strangers overrun their domains.
“The time for the traditional institutions to become active and responsive as the guardians of our values is now. The kings and village heads should be ready to accept responsibility for any security failure in their domain, and we dare say that being urban should be no excuse,” he warned.