OPC berates Arewa group over ultimatum to Yoruba in North
THE Oodua Peoples Congress ( OPC) New Era, yesterday, chided a northern youth group, Arewa Y outh Assembly ( AYA), for giving an ultimatum to Yoruba people living in the North to vacate the region within 72 hours.
In a statement made available to The Guardian in Ibadan by its National Public Relations Officer ( PRO), Adesina Akinpelu, the OPC New Era described the statement by A YA as a careless directive, saying that the Hausa have never been enemies to Yoruba people irrespective of their differences.
“The statement credited to one Mohammed Salihu Danlami, Speaker , Arewa Youth Assembly ( A YA), is uncalled for. It is very unfortunate that some Hausa have refused to accept the reality that the Fulani are the major problem bedeviling Nigeria as a nation. The Fulani ha ve virtually hijacked everything from us and even the Hausa always play the second fiddle,” he said.
Akinpelu said that both the Yoruba and Hausa had never been enemies to one another, urging the Arewa y outh group to go back to histor y and check how the two tribes had worked together to achieve what is called Nigeria today.
“How can any reasonable person support Fulani who have virtually hijacked Nigeria from us? They never even see Hausa as their brothers until they want to use them against other tribes. T oday, many Fulani speak Hausa language fluently but the same cannot be said about the real Hausa. Some of these Hausa people have become slaves to Fulani and that is why Mohammed Salihu Danlami, Speaker , Arewa Y outh Assembly ( AYA), could be making such careless statement,” he said.
He added that OPC was never against the Hausa but only demanded that criminal elements among all other tribes should leave Yorubaland before they are fished out.
“In as much as we want to become independent, the Yoruba are not against people of other tribes who are law- abiding or those doing legitimate businesses in Yorubaland. We will not support anybody or group that tries to instigate Yoruba people against law- abiding people of other tribes.”