A pan Yoruba socio-cultural and rights organization, Yoruba Radical Assembly (YRA), has advised the federal officials to leave the crisis in Magodo over ownership of some portions of land to the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, describing him as the authentic custodian of the land, culturally, legally and constitutionally.
National Convener of the group, Comrade Adekunle Adeosun, in a statement in Lagos Wednesday, expressed sadness that, the undue intervention of the federal officials purportedly sent from the offices of the Attorney General of the Federation and the Minister of Justice , Abubar Malami (SAN), and the Inspector General of Police Baba Alkali messed up the situation, saying, “we consider the intervention of Abuja in Lagos State affairs as unnecessary, meddlesome and unfair.”
Adeosun, who said, “our group is never against the rule of law and will never be antagonistic to upholding of tenets of justice,” however admonished that, it would be proper and tidy for the federal officials to discharge their duties in a way that would promote peace and harmony, observing that, a situation whereby the issue at hand is handled wrongly with the tendency to escalate it and cause the breach of the peace would not be in the interest of the generality of the people.
The group, which further reminded that, Nigeria as a country is peopled with diverse people with different cultural background and social diversity, said every matter is, therefore supposed to be handled with the people’s peculiarities in mind, condemning the Magodo encounter between Govern Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, who came for peace and the police officer who came to do the bidding of his Abuja bosses with arrogance and pomposity.
The organization took exception to the attitude and conduct of the police officer who was seen disobeying the governor, warning that, “our members would not fold our hands and watch our leaders insulted, our land polluted and our culture desecrated.”
According to the statement, there is nowhere in the world where the Attorney General and Minister of Justice would oversee land disputes in other states/regions of the country, wondering if a land dispute occurs in Manchester, the matter would be transferred to London, or if it happened in California, it would be handled by the New York’s officials!
In conclusion, the group expressed the strong conviction that, restructuring of the country along regional identities and peculiarities, warning that, or else, crisis upon crisis would continue to be the order of the day in the country.
