Yesterday,leader of the Yoruba World Congress, YWC, Professor Banji Akintoye, warned that the southwest will no longer tolerate the influx of Almajirai into the zone saying that most of them have been infected with the coronavirus. He, however, called on the South West governors to tighten the border patrols in their respective states to prevent the influx of the Almajirai.
Akintoye spoke with Vanguard in an interview.
His words:
“The northern governors seem to have woken up from the Almajiri problem created by the northern culture. “Now, they are forcing the Almajiri to go back to their places of origin but many of them don’t want to be taken back. So, many are finding their way southwards. “It is a very terrible situation because these are not just ordinary times. Coronavirus is out there, and it is massive in the north, so most of those who are fleeing do not want to be taken back to their places of origin, they choose to roam wherever they want and most of those coming southwards are infected with coronavirus.
We do not know how many of them are infected with coronavirus but we know that some of them are. “So, they are bringing for us in the south a very complex problem because already, we, the southwest, are the gateway to Nigeria. Almost all of the contacts with the outside world come through Lagos. We are only lucky that we have governors, who are rising to the task of tackling the coronavirus especially the governor of Lagos State.
“So now, to bring the infection from the north to the southwest, is an unacceptable situation. We, Yoruba, cannot accept those people from the north. In addition to what we already have; they cannot bring their coronavirus to the south. We cannot accept that. This is not politics, this is a matter of life and death and the northerners should begin to recognize that and tell their people not to flee to South West because we will not accept them in the southwest.
“I want to congratulate our governors for turning them back. All I will ask them to do is to strengthen the border patrol and send every one of them back to where they are coming from.”
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