The Yoruba people in the diaspora have opened a GoFundMe page for a Yoruba freedom fighter, Sunday Adeyemo, popularly known as Sunday Igboho, saying it was to aid a struggle for the southwest region.
The campaign is aimed at funding a fleet of vehicles and other equipment for Igboho and his followers, who have been at the forefront of a renewed agitation for the actualisation of Yoruba’s secession from Nigeria.
The campaign could add another layer of complication to the raging national conversation about Nigeria’s unity under President Muhammadu Buhari, whose governing style has been evidently sectional and divisive.
Already, pro-Biafran sentiments have gained widespread popularity amongst the Igbo ethnic stock occupying the country’s southeast.
Igboho has been in the news lately over his campaign to drive Fulani herdsmen from Oke-Ogun and other parts of Yorubaland, alleging that they have been the dominant perpetrators of violent crimes in the region.
In January, Mr. Buhari asked the police to shoot Igboho on sight after he led an army of his supporters to attack homes of Fulani settlers in Oyo.
Still, Igboho’s campaign to fragment the country has received the attention of some Yorubas in the diaspora.
About £8,000 has been raised out of the £100,000 goal for the purchase of buses that will help address concerns around logistics for Mr. Igboho and his supporters.
It was not immediately clear whether or not the people behind the campaign have ties to Igboho or discussed the matter with him before the launching the fundraiser.
