Apex Yoruba diaspora organisation, Yoruba One Voice (YOV) has called on the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, to save Yoruba land from imminent collapse.

It made the appeal in a letter entitled, “To Avert Human Tragedy, Yoruba People Seek the Conscience of World Leaders” signed by the secretary general, Prince Adedokun Ademiluyi.

YOV  claimed Yorubaland had, in the past years, remained the target of Fulani terrorists, insisting that the Yoruba Diaspora group would not fold its arms and watch terrorists wreak havoc on the South West.

It said since 1914, the Yoruba have been subjected to the worst kind of material and spiritual afflictions by a system that has stifled the voices of Yoruba people and trample on its heritage.

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“Since 1914, the forceful merger of the various ethnic groups and the garrison structure of the Nigerian state continues to drag backwards the choice and liberty of Yoruba people who bore the agony of a harrowing 30-month civil war (1967-1970), violent military putsches, political and economic schisms and complete annihilation of the Yoruba civilisation. This has been at a great, colossal cost to the Yoruba people whose collective aspiration is to determine their own political, cultural, social and economic destiny.

“The wave of terrorism on our land in the past 15 years, the Yoruba situation has gone from grace to grass. Our indigenous territories have become a theatre of blood-letting, terrorism and all vile associated with misery. In this past one and half decade, Yoruba territories have been ravaged by Fulani terrorists and Boko Haram, already categorised as some of the deadliest terror groups around the world. Fulani terrorism exists in West Africa, particularly Nigeria where they seek to violently impose a theocratic state. They have also carried out violent attacks and mass killings in Mali, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. In 2018 alone, approximately 1,930 died in attacks related to Fulani attacks. These actors are linked to Islamic State of West Africa Province, (ISWAP), The Macina Liberation Front (FLM) and the Protection of Fulani Identity and the Restoration of Justice, (ANSIPRJ).

“The Fulani terrorists were described by the Global Terrorism Index as the fourth deadliest terror group in the world. The havoc on Yoruba territories are compounded by Boko Haram and ISWAP. Efforts by local authorities to challenge them are frustrated by a Federal Government that is suspect.

“The Yoruba are some 60 million indigenous people living in the South West area of Nigeria of West Africa.”