OPCI Launches Osun Chapter, Warns ‘Aggressors’

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The National President of Oodua Progressive Care Iniatives (OPCI) Otunba Maruf Olanrewaju Salam has warned external aggressors like the Fulani herdsmen to steer clear of Yoruba land as the organization is set to defend its land

Salam gave this warning on Saturday while fielding questions from journalists during the inauguration of Osun State chapter of the organization/leadership lecture in Ile-Ife.

According to him, “We used to belong to Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) before we formed Oodua Progressive Care Initiatives (OPCI).

We are prepared to come out in full force to flush any marauding Fulani herdsmen out of Yoruba land. We know that the ongoing crisis and terrorism in the North East is making their youths to be migrating down South. However, we heard it on good authority that the Hausa/Fulani are sending their youths to Yorubaland and entire Southern part of Nigeria to cause crisis.

Their migratory pattern gives room for suspicion as they get to the South and within a short time start to ride Okada or do other menial businesses. We as an organization are fully prepared to defend Yorubaland.”

Warning Yoruba people to be wary of the Hausa/Fulani migrants, he said, “we should not oversleep, Alimi used religion to deceive the Yoruba to take over Ilorin by killing Afonja. We should be conscious of those riding Okada. We should not allow history to repeat itself”.

He called on the youths in Yoruba land to wake up from their political slumber and take up the challenge of leadership. This is because in our own country, Nigeria, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki ventured successfully into politics at a young age and he has emerged as leader.

Salam also appealed to Nigerian politicians to eschew violence and play the game according to its rules as we are approaching election period. He pleaded with them to put the interest of the people at heart by making them get the dividends of democracy.

Salam who disclosed that not less than thirty-five of its members have been sponsored to study courses like Management education at the American University in Benin Republic said that the organization is set to empower its members educationally, financially and logistically to success in any of their ventures.

OPCI president, Comrade Maruf Olanrewaju Salam, making a speech

Restating the objectives of the OPCI, Salam said, “it is to promote culture, peace and unity among the Yoruba, support the law enforcement agencies to make the society free of crimes. He said, “our cultural heritage has gone down and if care is not taken, our culture may go into extinction in the next fifty years. Our royal fathers must be actively involved in promoting our culture.

“It is sad that many homes in Yoruba land today don’t speak Yoruba as a language even to their children”He advocated Yoruba language as the medium of teaching and instructions in the primary and secondary schools.

Eulogising Ooni of Ife, Ooni Enitan Babatunde Ogunwusi in his peace and unity drive, he called on other traditional rulers as well as sons and daughters of Yoruba descent to be committed to an harmonious peace and unity of the race.