By CHINELO AGINA
Friday, July 24, 2009
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The Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has lashed out at the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), describing as baseless and unfounded, its recent accustion that the South-West was responsible for the plight of the Niger Delta people.

This statement came as a reaction to a comment credited to MEND, that the YCE, OPC and the entire South-West should apologize to the militant organization and the Niger Delta over what was described as the “brutal” actions of Obasanjo in the region. MEND had maintained in its statement that Obasanjo, whom the group believed represented the Yoruba nation had in one swoop, wiped out an entire community in Odi and wasted their resources while he was the minister for petroleum.

However, in an interview with Daily Sun, the YCE spokesperson and Kwara State chairman, Suleiman Salawu, refuted the allegation, saying that the Yoruba nation was shocked at the utterances of MEND accusing the South West of being responsible for the sufferings of the Niger Delta people through former President Olusegun Obasanjo.

“We have always sympathized with the Niger Delta people over their plight, which we believe is not peculiar to them, but they are taking it too far. It is very unreasonable for them to say that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was representing the Yoruba people in his actions. The allegation is unfounded and untrue. In the first place, Obasanjo was never a candidate of the South-West. How many Yoruba people voted for him in the 1999 elections? None. He was foisted there by the Northern oligarchy that still wanted to be in the mainstream.”

“Obasanjo was acting out the script of those who put him in power, and was in no way representing the interest of the Yoruba nation. We never supported any of his actions and we will still not support it if they are wrong. The South-West are a peace loving people who do not like to war, that is why we are calling for calm, because bombing the whole of Lagos will only aggravate tension.”

Salawu went on to say that the recent bombings of the Atlas Cove by the militants was not the way out of the problems in the country, calling on the militants to sheath their swords and not let their grievances affect innocent people negatively, “because another of such occurrence will not go down well with the Yoruba nation,” he said.

“The only way things can go right in Nigeria is by calling for a Sovereign National Conference, where a constitution that will address these issues will be addressed. Apart from that, the onus lies on the people of Nigeria to join forces and wrest power out of the hands of the leaders that are destroying us.”
“We want to believe that none of such bombings will occur again, because the Southwest is in no way happy with it.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2009/july/24/national-24-07-2009-14.htm

. . .The South-West are a peace loving people who do not like to war, that is why we are calling for calm. . .
The only way things can go right in Nigeria is by calling for a Sovereign National Conference. . .

Talking peace, before finishing MEND? Damn!
This how you know stupid people who just want their voices heard. The idiots had better go back to fishing or whatever it was they were doing before Atlas Cove.