The Yoruba Appraisal Forum (YAF) has raised the alarm over an alleged plot by agitators for the secession of Yoruba land from Nigeria to instigate chaos and violence in the South-West and other parts of the country with the ultimate objective of truncating the conduct of the 2023 general elections.

National Coordinator of the forum, Adesina Animashaun, alleged that the Yoruba Self-Determined Movement (YSDM) led by self-exiled Prof Banji Akintoye and his group is behind the plot.

The forum disclosed that the violence, which had been planned in two phases to coincide with the campaigns by political parties in the six South-West states, also had the objective of “re-enacting the arson and killings that characterised the unfortunate “Operation Wetie” violence that took place in the region in the First Republic” and it’s to be spread to the North by the Northern collaborators of the planners to spark off reprisal violence and killings.

According to YAF, “the masterminds of the violence had begun the distribution of arms to their foot soldiers posing as Yoruba Nation agitators, cultists and other hoodlums in the South-West in their alleged plans to instigate violence and cause chaos in the region and subsequently all over the country.”

YAF National Coordinator, Adesina Animashaun, made these allegations at a well-attended press conference in Lagos.

Citing Akintoye’s recently reported utterances that his group of agitators would achieve the secession of Yorubaland from Nigeria in a few months’ time, YAF said the statements by the self-exiled leader of agitators for the Yoruba Nation should be taken seriously as indications of the violence and evil he and his followers had been planning to forcibly stop the conduct of next year’s polls in the six states of the South-West geo-political zone and beyond.

“It is a known fact that the agitators for the phantom Yoruba Nation, who are known to be sponsored from within and outside Nigeria, have sinister and very dangerous agenda towards the country, particularly as it concerns the 2023 general elections. There are plans by these groups of Yoruba Nation agitators to cause violence and mayhem during the political campaigns scheduled to kick off on September 28, 2022.

“These groups of Yoruba Nation agitators have lined up various rallies and protests in all the six South-West states to coincide with the political parties’ campaigns with the sole aim of disrupting the political process, instigating violence and chaos, and truncating the conduct of next year’s general elections

“It has come to YAF’s notice recently that some so-called Yoruba Nation champions and agitators as well as disgruntled politicians, working in cahoots with their allies in other parts of the country, have been planning violent and unpatriotic activities in the South-West with the ultimate ulterior motive of truncating the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

“Of course, a grand conspiracy by some individuals, politicians and groups to undermine the country’s electoral process exists; the pointers to that are very clear. Already, the continued insurgency in the North-East, farmers-herders skirmishes in some parts of the country, resource conflicts in the Niger Delta, violence in the South-East and banditry in the North-West and secession agitations in the South-West are all indicative of the plans by some unpatriotic elements to truncate the conduct of next year’s polls.

“Recall that some unpatriotic elements have consistently been making aggressive efforts to disrupt the electoral processes, just to cast a pall of doubts on the conduct of the 2023 elections.

“Already, there are emerging indications that plans to assassinate key actors in the political sphere, especially in the South-West and truncate the electoral process have recently become rife and are now being crystalised with the commencement of political campaign activities.

“The major aim of this is to create panic, fear and anarchy and ultimately scuttle the forthcoming elections in many states of the Federation and destabilise the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“YAF indeed has information at its disposal that there are renewed plans by some Yoruba Nation agitators, politicians, their supporters and armed thugs to cause violence and mayhem in the South-West, and subsequently instigate reprisals in other parts of the country.

“The recent activities and utterances of a self-acclaimed Yoruba leader, Professor Banji Akintoye, currently living in self-exile in the Benin Republic, are clear indications of the evil plans of the so-called Yoruba Nation agitators for the South-West and Nigeria as a whole,” he claims.(Daily Independent)