The Afenifere on Thursday described as insolent comments attributed to Miyetti Allah group over Operation Amotekun.
Miyetti Allah had on Wednesday condemned the launch of the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) and claimed it will adversely affect the southwest’s chance in the 2023 presidential race.
Afenifere’s response is contained in a strongly-worded statement it issued on Thursday. The pan-Yoruba sociopolitical group wondered if the “cowherders” now own the presidency.
“Miyetti Allah now owns the Presidency which they can gift to who they want and deny who they choose? What insolence? Cowherders threatening a people that produced the first lawyer in 1879 because a lawyer who doesn’t know the law is overreaching himself?.
“Can they go and tell Yoruba in the Benin Republic such idiocy? It is now a crime that we inhabit the same country with them? If Yoruba would be colonised, is it by those we should employ on our ranches?
“To hell with their Presidency if the condition for it is that we must allow them to continue to waste the lives of our people. Who told these people Yoruba cannot opt for self-determination and have our own president? If they see the protection of our lives as politics, we are definitely in a wrong and impossible country,” the statement reads in part.
The national secretary of the Miyetti Allah, Alhassan Saleh, said Amotekun is a political construct and a poor choice to fix the security issues in the region.
“It is best they give up on this idea because it may affect the chances of the south-west to produce the president in 2023. The thinking is that if the south-west, a major stakeholder in this government, can be toying with this idea now, they may do worse when they get to power,” he said.