Yoruba community in the North has described the desecration of the Oba of Lagos palace as an insult to the Yoruba race.
It said the hoodlums responsible for it must be fished out and punished.
The President-General of the Yoruba Community in 19 Northern States and FCT, Alhaji Liadi Olayinka Olapade, spoke in Kaduna at the weekend at the annual Yoruba Day marked by the Yoruba community in Kaduna State.
He said although the violence that ended the #EndSARS protests did not emanate from the real protesters, the protest was dragged for too long and could not have ended without infiltration by hoodlums.
Olapade said: “The incident in Lagos is an unfortunate one. Nothing should have been done to desecrate the palace of the Oba of Lagos or our culture. The Oba is not an individual, he is an institution. So, the desecration of the palace is not just an insult to the Oba, but also an insult to the Yoruba tradition.
“So, I think from that angle, we condemn the whole thing. And those responsible for that act should be fished out and punished according to the law of the land.
“Talking about the #EndSARS protest, everybody has appreciated that our youths need to be supported, they deserve to be helped to come up, but we should not do that at the expense of whatever we hold high.
“I also agree that the violence part of whatever happens didn’t occur from the #EndSARS protesters, but my quarrel with the whole thing is that it was dragged for too long and there is no way, even if the soldiers didn’t shoot anybody at Lekki, there is bound to be infiltration by the hoodlums.
“Youths should know that their future is in their hands. They should not think that everything they need to do must be government propelled. The time people like Prof. Wole Soyinka, Dr. Tai Solarin and even General Yakubu Gowon came to the limelight, they were youths. So, the youth must have confidence in themselves that they are the ones the nation needs to turn its fortunes around and make things better, but not true violence.”
The convener of the event and youth leader of the Yoruba community, Alhaji AbdulFatah Oriyomi Lawal, said the leadership of the Yoruba community played a great role in managing peace in the North during the #EndSARS protest, especially among its members.
He said their contributions to peace could be attested to by the fact that there was no member of the Yoruba community among the youth arrested for looting of palliatives and government property across the region.

By AbdulGafar Alabelewe