• Prominent politician plotting to disrupt Oct 1 protest – YOV

Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan and Sunday Ani

A  group, Igbo for President Solidarity Congress (IPSC), has said the South East should be allowed to produce president in 2023 in order to sustain the indivisibility of the nation.

National President of IPSC, Dr. Olukayode OshinAriyo, made the call at a press conference in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday.

“As sons and daughters of Oduduwa, having iron cast faith in unity in diversity, believing that Nigeria was founded by consciousness of God  and trusting that Nigeria will bounce back to become just, peaceful and egalitarian nation free of wants, diseases, poverty, corruption and insecurity, hereby proclaim that for the sake of peace, unity, justice and equity, we wholeheartedly support Nigerian president of Igbo extraction come 2023,” OshinAriyo said. 

He called for a Memorandum of Understanding between an Igbo presidential aspirant and Yoruba leaders covenanting effective implementation of restructuring as enunciated in the 2014 conference report. 

“In consonance with Federal Character Principle as entrenched in 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), commonsensical and conscientiously, power should rotate to South Eastern zone of Nigeria. A man or woman of Igbo extraction as Nigerian president will be a nationalist, cerebral leader with analytical minds to proffer surest solution to multi-dimensional socio-economic and political challenges, confronting Nigeria as a nation. We state emphatically and without self-contradiction that the Yoruba love the peace and prosperity that abound in Nigeria, therefore, want to remain in the union. The Yoruba do not want to be president come 2023 general elections, having served a wholesale eight years as President from 1999 to 2007, and by 2023 as Vice President for another eight years. Between 1999 and 2023, the north would have served as President and Vice President for 20 years, South West for 16 years and South South for six years,” he said.

Meanwhile, a coalition of Yoruba group in the Diaspora, Yoruba One Voice (YOV), has alleged plot by a popular Lagos politician to disrupt a peaceful protest by the group slated for tomorrow.

A statement signed by the group’s spokesperson,  Zacheaus Somorin claimed the politician plans to sponsor miscreants to disrupt the peaceful protest.

The group claimed information from its sources revealed that each of the 500 hoodlums would be given N5 000 each to carry out the task.

“Ideologically, YOV is no longer interested in a country that is seeking loan to develop another country, Niger Republic to be specific, with a rail network. We are not interested in a country that finds it palpably impossible to provide adequate security, electricity, quality road, food security, job security, affordable housing scheme, quality education, and good public health sector. Nigeria is a country that doesn’t believe in the rule of law, hence, fated to have a negative image, globally.

“The Nigerian-state is preponderant with nepotism – a centrally minded and clannish leader. This is evident in the Katsina State’s situation where 22 federal projects are actively going on, including refineries,” the statement read in part