The leader of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide, Prof. Banji Akintoye, has denied authorising an advertised meeting of the group scheduled for Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Tuesday (today).
The Professor of History made this known in a statement he issued on Monday from Cotonou, Benin Republic.
He said the meeting was powered by some renegade members of the Ilana Omo Oodua, adding that the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress for the 2023 elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, had threatened to destroy the group.
Akintoye, who was reacting to a statement issued by Funmi Soyemi, the outgoing Chairman of Ilana Interim Management Committee, that a World Congress of Ilana Omo Oodua will hold in Ibadan, said: “I am sending out this short message to all Yoruba People worldwide that I did not authorize any meeting of Ilana Omo Oodua to be held tomorrow at Ibadan, Oyo-State. Those behind the gathering are few people working for Nigerian politicians who are determined to discredit our noble struggle.
“I hereby dissociate myself from such a gathering and I want the whole world to know the meeting is illegal, unauthorized and unknown to Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide thus whatever resolutions reached at the meeting are null and void.
“The characters behind the rumored meeting are individuals who are more interested in holding offices and positions within the self-determination struggle than fighting to restore the stolen sovereignty of our people.
“More also, Bola Tinubu has threatened to destroy Ilana Omo Oodua and other serious self-determination organizations in Yoruba Land because we told him that he is merely after his personal interest and not the interest of the Yoruba people.
“Therefore, I urge you all to ignore all his agents within our system and be more focused on our struggle for freedom and liberation.”