Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State has warned that the people of the Southwest would not tolerate another unprovoked attack on the region under any guise.
Akeredolu spoke on Tuesday, June 14, at the Government House in Akure while receiving Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State, and Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State.
Immediate past governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, also joined the entourage to pay a condolence visit to Akeredolu over the June 5, 2022, terror attack in Owo Local Government Area.
Read Also: Akeredolu Slams FG’s ‘Hasty’ Conclusion Over Alleged ISWAP Attacks On Owo Church
Akeredolu, who said the people of Ondo State and Southwest region at large, had always come to the country in peace and unity, described the Owo attack as “one too many”.
He appreciated the governors for their solidarity, which he described as not just symbolic but important, and noted that the people of the Southwest region had always maintained peace and unity in the country.
Akeredolu expressed;
We are part of this country and we have always come to this country in peace and we have maintained peace. We have been trying every time to maintain Nigeria because we believe in Nigeria.
Let someone point to an incident in which we left our enclave or we left this peaceful environment and went to cause problems in other places. Let them tell us.
We have come to this country in peace, and now people want to visit us with war. You want to maim and kill us; it is not easy.
It is a dreadful assault. I said to people that if we were at war and we were armed and faced ourselves, in one day 40 people would not die from our side. But this is not war, we were not at war.
This is an assault on us, on our psyche. We cannot continue this way. We believe in this place, we believe in the South-Western region, we believe in Yoruba. Is Yoruba part of Nigeria we believe in? Yes.
But I thank you for your solidarity. You have come all the time and we have always worked together, all of us.
