Yinka Odumakin, National Publicity Secretary of Afenifere on Wednesday said no army can suppress Yorubas when they have chosen to fight as a last resort.
Odumakin was responding to a claim by Junaid Mohammed, a Second Republic lawmaker who said Afenifere leaders will be the first to flee when war starts in Nigeria.
Odumakin said Yorubas are civilised people who engaged in all forms of dialogue but will choose war as a last resort.
“Alhaji Junaid Mohammed is a very educated man. I know him very well and we have sat together for discussions. He is a very brilliant mind but he is talking like an ignorant person. Yorubas will run for war? The last civil war they created in Biafra, who are the people who won the war? Benjamin Adekunle popularly called Black Scorpion, Olusegun Obasanjo, Alani Akinrinade and Alabi Isama”.
“ All the soldiers that Murtala Mohammed took to war, was it not in the river that he perished them? So, what is Junaid talking about? When his ancestors were bringing wars to Yorubaland, what happened in Osogbo?”
“ Yorubas are not ruffians, hooligans, marauders or terrorists. Yorubas will not fight as a first resort. Yorubas fight when there is no other option left. We fight as a last resort. Then when we decide to fight, woe betides whoever stands on the way. Even when internal saboteurs forced Yorubas to act, it is very decisive”.
“They should go and study ‘Westie’, Ondo 1983 and June 12. During the June 12 struggle, a first-class monarch in Yorubaland escaped being burnt alive in Lagos here. That is Yorubas for you when they are pushed to the wall. But they will try every other option. They will try national conference, national dialogue, national summit, even if General Abdulsalami summons them to Minna, they are ready to go”.
“They will do every other thing. It is only when there is no other choice to make than to fight, that is when they fight. But when they are ready to fight, no army can suppress them” he said.
