The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement, spearheaded by Professor Banji Akintoye and Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, has issued an open letter to President Bola Tinubu requesting a peaceful secession of the Yoruba people from Nigeria.
The letter, dated April 17, 2024, and co-signed by Akintoye, Igboho, and Ola Ademola, has heightened political tensions within the country.
The movement leaders have formally requested that President Tinubu establish a negotiation team within two months to discuss the peaceful exit of the Yoruba regions from the Nigerian federation.
This comes in the wake of a violent incident last week, where armed agitators stormed the Oyo State Government House, attempting to raise their flag over the state House of Assembly.
The agitators, numbering 29, were quickly subdued by security forces and subsequently faced legal proceedings in Ibadan, where a magistrate ordered their remand in prison custody.
In their letter, Akintoye and Igboho took a firm stand to dissociate themselves from the violence, emphasizing their commitment to achieving their goals peacefully.
The group said in the Middle Belt, horrendous blood-letting was going on, with many families forced into Internally Displaced People Camps while many of their villages were seized by the Fulani and renamed as Fulani villages.
It further alleged that an unofficial estimate showed that Fulani had killed as many as 29,000 Yoruba people since 2015 till date, adding that the aforementioned reasons were enough for them to seek breakaway from Nigeria
