Professor Banji Akintoye, the founder of Ilana Omo Oodua Worldwide has said that he cannot be cajoled, bought nor bullied to dump the idea of Yoruba Nation which its actualisation is realizable.
Akintoye made this disclosure in a release he personally signed and made available to news men.
According to him, “the story Published on Thursday May 12, 2022, the by Sahara Reporters that I, Prof Banji Akintoye, I am considering quiting the Yoruba self-determination organization Ilana Omo Oduduwa Worldwide that I founded for any reason whatsoever, is all blatant falsehood. The added account that an official of Buhari’s federal government is offering me millions of Naira to lure me away from Ilana Omo Oduduwa and the whole Yoruba self-determination struggle is equally blatantly false.
“And the suggestion that I am naive enough to yield to money, or to give up what I am busy doing for the Yoruba nation in order to accept leadership of all Yoruba Groups or a National Fund, is both an insult and a grotesque fabrication.
“I have no reason whatsoever to consider abandoning the organization which I founded for the service of the Yoruba nation, towards achieving Yoruba self-determination. Ilana Omo Oduduwa has, by the grace of God, grown in a short time to become the mightiest powerhouse in the Yoruba struggle to liberate itself from the poor governance, awful insecurity, disastrously mismanaged economy of Nigeria.
“I have no information whatsoever that any official of Buhari’s government has been sent to bring any money to me, but I doubt it. I doubt it because the people in the Fulani cabal managing the Federal Government know me very well, and know that I absolutely cannot be bought or bullied by them. They know that in my much younger years as a prominent youth in the political family of our father, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, they could not buy or bully me. I am sure that they are afraid to send their money to me in this my grand old age because they know I regard their money as filthy money. I am still the brave patriot and uncompromising fighter for truth and integrity that my God made me to be.
“We Yoruba will soon free ourselves from the death and decay that Nigeria has become. We will soon take our people out of the mud-pit of Nigeria into our own sovereign Yoruba county, into our land of great progress, of abundant and equal opportunities, of law, order, of security and justice, where our youths will surprise the world with their industry and their inventions.
“Through Ilana and our other self-determination organizations, our Yoruba nation has gone a long way in it’s self-determination struggle, by operating with peaceful and law abiding means. For us of Ilana and other true Yoruba patriots, there is no going back or looking back in this struggle
Because our enemies of all kinds are already smelling defeat, they are resorting to spreading false stories in the press concerning us. But that will not help them or deter us”, Akintoye said