The Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, has warned northern organizations to refrain from attacking Yoruba activist Sunday Adeyemo, widely known as Sunday Igboho, for his efforts to combat banditry and terrorism in Yorubaland. Through a statement issued by National Publicity Secretary Jare Ajayi, the group clarified that Igboho is targeting criminal elements rather than any specific ethnic group.
Igboho recently issued an ultimatum for the release of kidnapping victims in the Oke Ogun area of Oyo State and warned criminals against further violence. While he explicitly stated that peaceful non-indigenes have nothing to fear, groups such as the Arewa Consultative Forum and the Northern Elders Forum have called on President Bola Tinubu and Governor Seyi Makinde to intervene against the activist.
Afenifere defended these actions as legal and necessary, dismissing the calls for Igboho’s arrest as an attempt to unfairly target someone protecting their community. The organization noted that while northerners have historically lived peacefully in the region, the situation has deteriorated due to criminal herders, kidnappers, and illegal miners displacing local residents. The group emphasized that security failures in the north have increasingly impacted the stability of the entire nation.
