S/West: ‘It’s a case of father and child’ says Igboho as he apologises to Ooni

*’I was pained by the issue, my tongue was caught up in the moment…’

POPULAR Yoruba activist, Sunday Adeyemo, better known as Sunday Igboho, has apologised to the Ooni of Ife, Enitan Ogunwusi for describing the first class monarch as a “Fulani slave”.

Igboho, who lambasted the monarch and other prominent Yoruba politicians during a virtual town hall meeting with Yoruba in the Diaspora, said Ooni Ogunwusi failed to tell President Buhari the truth about the atrocities being unleashed on Yoruba people by herders when he met the president in Abuja.

Igboho also berated a national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for turning themselves into “Fulani slaves” because of their political ambitions.

Igboho noted that Yoruba traditional and political leaders are lilly-livered people who have refused to come to the rescue of their people when herders ride roughshod over them on their land.

“Our leaders are lazy and slaves to Fulanis. They visit Abuja to collect money; we will attack them and destroy their property. Ooni should be dealt with. I am annoyed. Why should we be afraid of the crown they (Yoruba monarchs) wear? Tinubu and other Yoruba politicians are Fulani slaves,” Igboho had said.

He, however, singled out Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, for commendation noting that the monarch has been supportive since he started the agitation against the atrocities of herdsmen

He eulogised the king for writing a letter to Buhari where he presented the true picture of events in Yorubaland to him.

Igboho had issued a seven-day ultimatum to herders in Ibarapa area of Oyo State, blaming them for insecurity in the state.

After confronting the herders in Ibarapa with thousands of youths in the area at the expiration of the ultimatum, he moved to Ogun state on Monday and issued another eviction notice to herders in the south-west.

However, the Yoruba activist, in an interview with Isokan Omo Oodua TV, an online broadcast medium, ate humble pie and begged for forgiveness from the monarch, whom he described as his father, adding that he made the statement on the spur of the moment.

“They said I insulted the Ooni of Ife. I and the monarch, as well as the Olugbon, have spoken on the phone. The Yoruba tradition doesn’t permit the insult of elders. But because I was pained by the issue, my tongue was caught up in the moment. I spoke according to how pained I was. It wasn’t the Ooni alone I directed my words at, I also did to other elders,” Igboho said.

“It’s a case of father and child. I and the monarch have spoken as well as the Olugbon. I did not insult the Ooni. And if it appears as if I did, he should forgive me.”