Jos Crisis: Shonekan Warns Yorubas Against Reprisal Attack

Chief Ernest Shonekan, former Head of Interim National Government, has cautioned Yoruba people against reprisal attacks over the killings and losses they suffered in the Jos crises.

Shonekan said in a statement to the President-General of Yoruba Community in Plateau, Mr Toye Ogunshuyi, on Saturday, that vengeance was not a solution to the crises.

He said that security was a national problem and that good people, irrespective of tribal, geographical, religious and political affiliations, “know that violence does not do any one any good’’.

“No one has the monopoly of violence and reprisal attack does not resolve conflicts but only increase the tragic consequences.

“Yoruba is one of the major tribes in the country that cherishes peaceful co-existence, justice and hard work, and their conducts in Plateau should not be an exception,’’ he said.

The Former Head of State said all patriotic Nigerians should condemn violence and bloodshed, stressing that what was happening in Plateau was “wicked, barbaric, demeaning and ungodly’’.

He said the Yorubas should not join the bandwagon of evil-minded people.

Shonekan praised Acting President Goodluck Jonathan for listening to the demands of the Yoruba by ensuring that all stakeholders were included as members of the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Jos Crises.

He said that an all-inclusive stakeholders Committee was needed in order for the people to listen to one another’s grievances for a possible solution to the persistent crisis.

Meanwhile, the President-General of Yoruba Community in Plateau, Mr Toye Ogunshuyi, has said that the community lost 156 of its members and property worth N2.5 billion during the November 2008 and January 2010 Jos crises.

Ogunshuyi listed those killed to include students and youth corps members and appealed to both the Federal and Plateau Governments to punish the perpetrators of the dastardly acts in order to guard against re-currence of such incidence.

He said the Yorubas had suffered oppression, humiliation and retardation in their businesses and careers as a result of the crisis.

Ogunshuyi, therefore, called on the government to adequately compensate all the victims of the crisis, irrespective of tribal, religious or political affiliations.