Convene emergency security summit now, OPC tasks South-West Govs

The Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), has given South-West governors one week to summon a stakeholders’ summit on security in the region following Sunday’s heartless killing of over 40 worshippers at the Saint Francis Xavier Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State.

Making the call on Thursday, Wasiu Afolabi, OPC president, described the Owo killings as a horrible, sacrilegious and provocative action, which showed the porous state of security in the South-West that must be urgently addressed.

OPC also condemned the resistance Northerners were putting up against the banning of Okada commercial motorcyclists in six local governments in Lagos State, and warned that nobody should give the law an ethnic coloration.

On the Okada matter, Afolabi said: “We fully support the enforcement of the rules issued by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu on Okada operations. Hausa people should acknowledge that the ban affects not only them, but other operators as well; and majority of those affected are the indigenous Yoruba people. Moreover, similar laws have been enacted in places like Kano and Abuja and the heavens did not fall.

“OPC will not tolerate the actions that have been taking place where Northerners confront the police and enforcement authorities, as happened in Mile 2-Festac and Idi-Araba axis. Southerners living in the North never confront authorities in the North over any law or regulation; and Northerners cannot come and dictate to our governments here in the South. Those who cannot comply with the rules of Lagos should go back home to their native states and countries,” he said.

The group described the Owo massacre as a wake-up call, saying: “What happened in Owo demands a swift and appropriate response from the Yoruba people or we are all done for. “To continue to carry on as if we are safe after such a huge tragedy is to live in a fool’s paradise. It is an invitation to annihilation. No one is safe. Who knows where next these evil people will strike and with what magnitude?”

The OPC president said the group had been expecting governors of Yoruba states to take the initiative to summon an emergency meeting of the Yoruba people, but was disappointed they had so far failed to do so. (Daily Independent)