LAGOS: 46 days to presidential election, Yoruba Nation secessionists engage police in fight
*We will burn police station , group leader vows
By KEMI KASUMU
Reportedly on Monday, a gun battle ensued between Yoruba Nation’s secessionist agents and operatives of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), at the Ojota area of Lagos State.
During the fight, two persons were said to have been hot by straying bullets.
According to a report, the Yoruba Nation secessionists had gathered for a rally at Ojota without obtaining permit from the police, in a Lagos from where #EndSARS protest that authorities let be was hijacked and spread beyond control across major parts of Southern Nigeria in October 2020.
This gathering without police permit triggered Monday’s deployment in the Ojota area, according to an eyewitness account.
As members of the Yoruba Nation group gathered, some of them, sighting a vehicle bearing the logo of the All Progressives Congress (APC), allegedly launched attack in the vehicle, thereby necessitating intervention from among the police team deployed in the area to ensure no untold situation emanate from the unlawful gathering.
In the end, two persons claimed to be members of the “unlawful” group died due to their clash with state agents.
In the meantime, one of the leaders of the Yoruba Nation fighters in the area, identified as Sautin Igboho, claimed that the two persons that died were members of his group, adding that war has been declared in Yoruba Land.
“They have killed two of our people. War has been declared in Yorubaland” he alleged in a viral video from the scene.
The ethnic fighters, who outnumbered the policemen initially on ground, burnt one of the security patrol vehicles.
Reinforcement was later sought and with more policemen, including those of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) joining the battle against the “unlawful gun fighters”, Yoruba Nation.
Sautin Igboho, who called the attention of the leader of the group who has been in detention in Benin Republic for close to two years, Sunday Igboho, and that of the Leader of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Prof. Banji Akintoye, to the development, vowed that they would burn the police station in the area.
The closest to the spot is Ketu Divisional Police Headquarters.
Sautin Igboho said two of his members were killed by stray bullets.
He said: “There is war in Yorubaland o. Our people have been killed. There’s been trouble in Yorubaland. Our people have been killed.”
Sautin then went on to strip himself naked, revealing charms on his body.
There was not yet a reaction from the Lagos State Police Command as at the time of filing this report. However, calm has been restored as vehicular and human movements have since resumed in the area.
In the meantime, some of the comments around the event feared that Yoruba Nation secessionist agents would not make another South East, where Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) turned own region to war zone, in the South West. “It won’t help Yoruba Land development, especially now that a Yoruba is much more certain to be President of Nigeria after right years of Yoruba Vice President,” one of them, unnamed, warned.
