Calls for self-determination, state police.
By Bunmi Oluwole
Prominent leaders of Yoruba and Ijaw nations have met in Lagos after which the two nationalities promised to work together to remove suspicion and grey areas that could fuel ethnic violence among the two groups, Irohinoodua has been informed . Both the Ijaw and Yoruba leaders at the end of deliberations called for ethnic self-determination and state police as the immediate solution to the social and political instability that have long threatened Nigeria’s wellbeing.
Irohinoodua was hinted that the meeting was called at the instance of some Yoruba and Ijaw leaders following the killings of over 30 people in Ikorodu, outskirt of Lagos by criminal gangs of Ijaw extraction. The two nationalities were led by Pa Ayo Adebanjo, General Alani Akinrinade and Prof Banji Akintoye on the Yoruba side while the Ijaws were represented by Chiefs Clerk and Albert Horsfall, a retired Justice of the High Court amongst others. Representatives of the traditional ruler of Imushin and Igbo Olomu, the communities visited by violence were also at the meeting.
Each nationality was represented by no fewer than 30 delegates from each side. The meeting which began at noon on Friday ended at 5pm after which a communiqué was issued.
Both nationalities condemned in strong terms the killings at Ikorodu calling on the police to fish out the perpetrators and ensure that they are punished. The groups doubted the claims of the Ogun State Police Commissioner who said the crime was perpetrated by Niger-Delta avengers. The leaders wondered why the Police Commissioner, who is Hausa-Fulani was so quick to put the blame on Ijaws when the same police authorities did not admit that the killings by herdsmen were perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen.
Speaking at the event, 82-year old Prof Akintoye said the studies he conducted in the 1950s indicated that the Ijaw and the Yoruba have lived together for close to 6000 years long before the amalgamation of Nigeria and that the recent killings have the potential of precipitating a major avoidable crisis between the two nationalities.
The leader of the Afenifere Renewal Group, (ARG) Mr Wale Osun said his group wishes to see a situation where no Yoruba man would be killed and that violence perpetrated by other nationalities on Yoruba territories will be resisted. Mr Akani Adewale, a representative of the Oodua Nationalist Coalition, (ONAC), said the two nationalities should realize that the killings at Ikorodu was a reflection of the defective security system in Nigeria and a clear symbol of the failure of state responsibility which ha been the hallmark of successive regimes in Nigeria. He said the killing at Ikorodu should never repeat itself and that it will be in the interest of both nationalities to bring to book those responsible for the mayhem.
Responding, Chief Horsfall said the killings at Ikorodu should not repeat itself adding that a few criminal actions of some people of Ijaw extraction should not be mistaken as an action carried out deliberately by the Ijaw nationality adding that every nationality has her own bad eggs.
At the end of the meeting, the two nationalities set up a committee to visit the affected communities and also to meet regularly and work together towards the resolution of the nationality crisis that currently bedevil Nigeria.

self determination is the only solution.