Members of the Ilana Omo Oodua, a pro-Oodua Nation group on Saturday staged a rally in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
The group, agitating for the actualisation of an independent country in the South-West, staged the rally amid heavy police presence.
Earlier, there were fears that the protest may not hold due to heavy presence of a combined team of Mobile Policemen, Civil Defence Corps, men of the Operation Burst arm of the police, Department of State Service in and around Mapo Hall, the take-off point of the rally.
The leader of the group, 86-year-old Emeritus Professor of History, Banji Akintoye, was conspicuously absent at the venue but his lieutenants were present to charge members of the group who defiled the police presence to gather for the rally.
The agitators, who sang and chanted ‘No to Nigeria’, bore banners and flags with the inscription ‘Yoruba Nation’.
Many of them showed up in trucks drumming and dancing towards the armed police officers right in front of the Mapo Hall.
One of the leaders, Basorun Kunle Adesokan, said that the Yoruba people were determined to be independent.
“What we are saying is, we want a Yoruba nation. We are tired of staying with Nigeria. Enough of killings, maiming and destruction of properties by Fulani people.
“No retreat, no surrender. We have started the rally in Ibadan, there is no going back. We are starting here because Ibadan is the capital of Yorubaland but we will not use violence.”
The group had in a WhatsApp message circulated during the week, mobilsed members from across the South-West states of the federation Lagos, Ogun, Kwara, Osun, Ekiti and Ondo to converge in Ibadan the proposed Political Capital of the Oodua Nation.
The urged members to dress in Amotekun Outfits or White regalia.