Historian and leader of the umbrella body of Yoruba Self-Determination Groups, Ilana Omo Oodua (IOO), Professor Banji Akintoye, has accused the Federal Government of recruiting some ‘unwanted’ people within the fold of Yoruba nation agitators to blackmail him and sabotage the struggle.

Akintoye, in a statement issued on Thursday by the Communications Secretary of IOO, Maxwell Adeleye, added that a press conference by the FG was being sponsored to that effect.

“These reactionaries celebrated the invasion of one of my lieutenants, Sunday Adeyemo’s house. They never wanted the young man to come out of the prison where the Nigerian Government is currently holding him in the Republic of Benin,” the statement recounts.

“The offence of Sunday Adeyemo is that he has become the face of the struggle, even more, prominent than me.

They would grumble that they have been in the struggle for years, and someone who just joined the struggle is now a celebrated hero. I appealed to them to see this as a sacrifice and a battle for our children but they refused to listen.

The last straw that broke their camel’s back was when they refused to release the organization’s fund in their possession to be used to add to the funds we wanted to use to pay Ighoho’s lawyers in the Republic of Benin.

“We were held to ransom. I had to impose some disciplinary measures in the overall interest of our people which got them angry and ever since, these reactionaries have been threatening to scatter the struggle.

“They have started blackmailing me and one of my trusted aides for refusing to compromise. When their faceless campaign of calumny failed to materialise, they are now coming out openly to blackmail me to please their paymasters in Abuja and Lagos.

“But I am sure the Yoruba People will fight these locusts. We won’t be intimidated. Soon, they will know they are a tiny minority. The whole agenda is to demoralise me,” the statement reads.