May 27, 2025
By Adedoja Adesoji
The Yoruba Self-Determination Movement (YSDM) has accused Nigerian security agencies of treating Yoruba youths as terrorists, subjecting them to unlawful arrests and extortion.
In a letter dated May 25, 2025, and addressed to President Bola Tinubu, Prof (Senator) Adebanji Akintoye, the national leader of the movement, raised grave concerns about the Nigerian Police, the Directorate of State Security (DSS), and other federal agencies’ handling of Yoruba youths.
“These federal agencies tend to view all Yoruba youths as insurgents or terrorists,” Prof Akintoye stated.
“They therefore often abuse the human rights of Yoruba youths – by arresting them without just cause, detaining them in police cells, and then forcing them to pay money for their release.”
The letter asserts that the unlawful acts are a deliberate tactic aimed at intimidation to discourage Yoruba youths from pursuing self-determination.
“It is obvious that the Nigerian Police and other security agencies believe that it is their duty to treat Yoruba youths in these unlawful ways in order to intimidate the youths and thereby compel the youths to abandon their quest for the Self-determination of their Yoruba Nation.”
Prof Akintoye warned that the continued harassment risks pushing the generally peaceful Yoruba youths into violent reactions, recalling historical uprisings: “Yoruba youths, though now generally peaceful out of deference to their elders and their culture, can explode in reaction if they continue to be pushed.”
He emphasized that self-determination is a right, an inalienable right, of all indigenous nations of the world, citing international laws and conventions.
“You know that these inalienable rights are enshrined in the laws of the International Community and spelt out in many important international Conventions and Declarations: United Nations Charter, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples 2007, African Charter of Human and Peoples’ Rights.”
Recalling the massive rallies in 2021, Prof Akintoye insisted that each of the rallies was peaceful and law-abiding, with no injury to any person and no damage to any property.
“The final meaning of all this is that peaceful acts by any Nigerian to assert and retrieve the self-determination of any Nigerian people do not contravene the laws of Nigeria.”
