PRESS RELEASE:BY ODUA NATIONALIST COALITION ON KILLING OF 2 YORUBA PROFESSORS AT BAYERO UNIVERSITY

PRESS RELEASE:BY ODUA NATIONALIST COALITION ON KILLING OF 2 YORUBA PROFESSORS AT BAYERO UNIVERSITY

BOKO HARAM: Find killers or face revenge

The Federal Government has been asked to find the killers of hundreds of people being killed by members of the Islamic extremist group of face revenge seeking counter measures from Yoruba nationalist groups.

In a statement on Monday morning signed by the group’s Public Affairs Secretary, Alhaji Yinusa Akinkunmi, the Oodua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC) said the group was greatly disturbed by the recent killings of two Yoruba Professors, Jerome Ayodele and Andrew Leo Ogbonyomi. The two were shot dead by armed gangs we believe are members of Boko Haram.

“We call on the Federal Government to immediately bring these blood thirsty murderers to book. We want to know who killed the two professors. We want to know who bombed Thisday and The Sun Newspapers. They must be brought to book or face proportional revenge. Though in this heinous game, some Hausa-Fulani Northern Muslims have been killed, however, this is nothing but primarily a continuous target hate killings informed by ethnic and religious considerations.”

To us, Boko Haram is a product of three major factors: the faulty foundation of Nigeria which has been a subject for violent questioning, the excruciating pains of daily survival occasioned by a wicked, greedy and spineless political  leadership, the perceived loss of power by the Hausa-Fulani ruling class and the crisis in the Magreb region where Islamic fundamentalists are taking over government which has emboldened their counterparts in Nigeria and lastly, the lack of honest, transparent and selfless approach to tacking the problem by the ruling class. Non of these causes can be isolate as being solely responsible for the current mayhem.

On our part we see that Boko Haram as targeting mostly Southerners. This strategy is aimed at two things, to cause anarchy and probably invite the military to thwart the little democratic experience, and also to position the Hausa-Fulani North as an intimidating political bloc thereby cowing other nationalities into submission, in the usually fierce contest for political power in Nigeria. We reject the notion that Boko Haram is poverty-induced. The group itself has not said it is fighting economic injustice, rather it claims to be fighting for the imposition of Sharia in Nigeria, so it is naïve and treacherous for anyone to attempt rationalizing poverty as the reason behind the group’s penchant for human blood.”

“We recall with pain that in 1994, a Yoruba Professor Baderu at the Ahmadu Bello University was bundled into the booth of his car and later massacred by Islamic Fundamentalists. We could not imagine what could have happened if two Professors of Hausa-Fulani origin were shot dead at the University of Ibadan in the name of religion. These killings we can no longer tolerate. On behalf of the Yoruba people, if the killers are not found, our people will be left with no option than to revenge with brutal proportional response.” 

We are alarmed at the attitude of the South West Governors. They seem to be totally neither aware nor appreciate the depth of the pitfalls that await the Yoruba nation in the face of the growing restlessness across the country.

We call on the Governors of the South West states to wake up from their stupor and realize that war is almost imminent in the emerging political and social crisis engineered and fueled by Boko Haram.         We are worried that instead of restructuring the country for ethnic self-determination, President Goodluck Jonathan's government is rather strengthening the bogus, inept garrison state. This is evident in the recent police postings which has seen the return of Hausa-Fulani officers as Police Commissioners in the Southern States and the retention of Hausa-Fulani in the Northern states as police commissioners. This is unacceptable.

“It is time for the SW Governors to set up homegrown community security outfits to save the people from the consuming fire of Boko Haram. If the current ACN leaders fail to do this, the people on their own will rise up to the occasion for self-preservation.