Ondo Won’t Support Secession Bid- Akeredolu
Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State Thursday insisted that there would not be any agitation for secession in any part of the state. Akeredolu lashed the leader of the Ilana Omo Oodua, Professor Banji Akintoye for picking on him saying that the state would not support the secession plan as canvassed by him and other Yoruba agitators
He spoke through his Senior Special Assistant, SSA, on Special Duties and Strategies, Dr Doyin Odebowale while reacting to a statement credited to the leader of the Ilana Omo Oodua, Prof Banji Akintoye on his stand on secession.
Recall that Akintoye while reacting to Governor Akeredolu on the secession plan by some Yoruba agitators said that the governor was speaking for himself and not the people of the state. Akeredolu in a statement entitled “Grandstanding for relevance: A historian’s burden” said there will be no agitation for secession in any part of Ondo State. Prof Akintoye should submit himself to the people if he is so desirous of representing them.
“lt is presumptuous, denigrating and condescendingly spiteful for a group of hustlers, living largely in anonymity but struggling for relevance, to keep proclaiming and legislating on issues which affect the destiny of a whole people, without the faintest suggestion of paying even scant regard to their feelings or extending due courtesy to the real representatives of the people whose opinions they discount as unimportant.
“The people are discerning. They know the impostors. They have not forgotten the activities of the suborned agitators, the presumed penitent activists.
“The Ondo people, and indeed Yorubas, are the easiest to lead but the most difficult to deceive. With them sophistry and demagoguery have their limits.
“lf the Governor cannot speak for his people, is it a pack of unelected jokers who will declare ‘Sovereignty’ on their behalf?
“At what point did we decide as Yoruba people to declare a new Republic? Where was the referendum held? Who conducted it? Who chose the date for the declaration of “Autonomy for the Yoruba Nation”?
“If an elected Governor represents himself, on whose behalf are these people agitating? Who appointed Prof Akintoye as the leader of the Yoruba? How many people participated in the sham? “lt is very saddening to note that some of those who pretend to be the custodians of the pristine philosophy of value propounded by the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, SAN, failed to see the connection between the Livestock Transformation Programme and the attempts by the current administration in Ondo State to resuscitate the Akunnu and Auga Ranches.
“Those who lack the capacity to look beyond the parochial prism of ethnicity and prebendalism cannot appreciate the genuine efforts of the Akeredolu’s Administration to make the people of the State the centre of all activities.
“The Governor’s speech was clear; no part of Ondo State will be ceded to any foreigner under whatever guise. Only a mischievous person will twist the fact. Akeredolu said that “The tone of the riposte suggests that the writer(s) must be labouring with deliberate amnesia with regard to presentation of facts and twisting of same.
