“This is clearly another grand plot to set the Yoruba against Igbo. We do not believe the police claim.”
A Yoruba group at the fore of agitations for self-determination, Apapo Oodua Koya (AOKOYA), has defended the Indigenous People of Biafra against allegations of planned attacks.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, had earlier raised an alarm that IPOB was planning to launch an attack on soft targets in Lagos State.
He said, “The threat of IPOB to attack soft targets in Lagos is equally being put on the radar of the command intelligence gathering and other security services in the state. Strategies are being put in place to neutralise their activities.
“The Command is using this medium to solicit for the support of all and sundry to be vigilant at all times and report any suspicious person or movement to security agencies. Let us adopt the slogan of ‘when you see something, say something.’”
But in a statement on Tuesday, AOKOYA described the allegation by the police boss as false, stating that such comments are targeted at causing conflict between Igbo and Yoruba peoples in Lagos State.
AOKOYA said, “This is clearly another grand plot to set the Yoruba against Igbo. We do not believe the police claim.”
The group said the claim is not only suspicious but also raises a lot of questions given the silence of the same police force since “Fulani terrorists” have been attacking the entire South West.
AOKOYA said it is possible that a rogue group may attack strategic assets in Lagos and then the police will put the blame on IPOB in order to set Yoruba and Igbo peoples against each other.
“This is a game of wits. We urge Igbo and Yoruba to be aware. When Fulani terrorists were attacking Yoruba, kidnapping the people, the police did not mention any name.
“Now that IPOB is fighting for self-determination, the Fulani leadership is looking for a way to divide the emerging Igbo and Yoruba solidarity. This evil plot will fail.
“We call on the Federal Government to send soldiers to flush our Fulani terrorists in Yewa, Igana in Oyo and armed Fulani cells across the South West forests. IPOB is not Yoruba problem. IPOB is not kidnapping Yoruba people.
“IPOB is not occupying Yoruba forests. IPOB is not kidnapping, raping and killing Yoruba women and students. IPOB is not killing our farmers. The police should focus on Fulani terrorists in the South West instead of blackmailing IPOB.”
The group, therefore, urged Igbo people living in Lagos and Yoruba indigenes to continue to explore areas of cooperation and prevent attempts to destroy the growing economic and spiritual ties that have emerged over the past decade
“We warn the Fulani Federal Government; do not bomb Lagos and then put the blame on IPOB in order to cause disaffection between Yoruba and Igbo.
“This is an old trick used by (Adolf) Hitler to set people against each other. It is one of the instruments Fulani have employed to keep themselves in power. The game is up.”
