By Banji Akintoye
All Yoruba people at home and in the diaspora are horrified by the military attack on a peaceful protest in Lekki, Lagos State, last night, resulting in many deaths and many injuries.
We as a nation condemn the attacks in the strongest terms. We Yoruba nation, a nation of 55 million population in Nigeria call on the international community to reject this unwarranted attack, and the killing and wounding of many youths engaged in a manifestly peaceful protest on our land in Nigeria.
We ask the international community to note that this attack is yet another evidence of the low level to which Nigeria has descended in insecurity, disrespect for human rights, for civil rights, and dignity of life.
For us Yoruba people, the message of this outrage should be absolutely clear. We need to demonstrate our unity, purposefulness and resolve as a nation. We need to immediately banish all signs of disunity among us as a people and inside and between our many civil organisations.
We need to unite to confront together the obvious danger that threatens our Yoruba nation in Nigeria. We need together to clarify our nation’s goal, and we need to unite to chart the path to the peaceful negotiations that will take us to our goal.
We deeply sympathise with the families of the young persons who were killed or wounded in the attack. And we must ensure that their blood has not been shed in vain.
We assure all our youths who have been protesting peacefully in the past few days that we commend them for the very orderly and sophisticated management of their protests. We are very proud of them. We will take whatever lawful steps that we may consider necessary and appropriate over this situation.
-Prof Banji Akintoye, Leader, Yoruba World Congress