A socio-cultural group, the Yoruba Commitment Forum (YCF) has admonished traditional rulers and other stakeholders of the Yoruba ethnic nation against using religion to cause disaffection among the people.
YCF in a statement issued yesterday in Abeokuta and signed by its leaders urged traditional rulers of the land to desist from distorting historical facts about the race to avoid falling for the pranks of those it referred to as “terrorists hired to cause disaffection among the Yoruba and claiming our lands as theirs.”
In the statement signed by its national president and national secretary, Otunba Tayo Onayemi and Barr Akeem Aponmade respectively, YCF said the call became necessary in view of the rate at which some royal fathers in Yorubaland “turn history upside down publicly.”
Stressing that such intransigence is unprecedented and unwarranted, the group said, “We respectfully demand of our Kabiyesis to be circumspect in their public comments, appearance and conduct in such a way that Yorubaland and the exalted positions they occupy can be further dignified and preserved.
“We need not to remind our Obas that they superintend over us and as such, our welfare and the preservation of our culture and traditions as traditional rulers should be uppermost in their minds.
“Yoruba Obas and peoples should rise up to defend their land, history and territorial integrity against the onslaught of the enemies and terrorists who have been hired to bring religious disaffection among us, claim our lands as theirs and change our demographic excellent setting in various forms”.
Reacting to the recent argument on the ownership of Lagos, the group affirmed that Lagos from the time immemorial belongs to Yorubaland, stressing that facts supporting this are numerous.
