Over 16 pro-Yoruba independence Oodua Nation armed gangs in military camoflage were arrested by operatives of Nigeria Police after they stormed the Oyo State Secretariat, Ibadan and hijacking the State House of Assembly and hoisting its independence flag.
The pro-independence agitators had initially overwhelmed the security operatives and occupied the Oyo State Assembly complex and entire State Secretariat.
The Yoruba independence agitators, who were dressed in military camouflage and armed with weapons, hoisted their own flag within the Assembly premises before the security personnel displaced within the State secretariat called for backup.
The armed separatists exchanged in sporadic gunfire with the security forces including the Police, Nigerian Army, Amotekun Corps, the Department of State Services (DSS), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
Sources confirmed that the separatists had stormed the Oyo State Secretariat complex in an ash-colored Hiace bus and two motorcycles and headed straight to the State House of Assembly premises, removing the Nigerian national flag and replacing it with their own O’odua Nation flag before security forces intervened.
The source noted that some of the armed separatists fighters, some with bullet wounds, fled the Secretariat complex into the nearby bushes and forest around the area and were being pursued by security forces.
Special Adviser to Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State on Security, Mr. Fatai Owoseni, who spoke on the invasion by the Oodua Nation separatist fighters, however said that the situation has been brought under control by the security forces who have also successfully subduing the agitators.
Describing the separatists as “miscreants,” Owoseni said: “We were able to arrest some of them while others fled. There is no need to panic. Everything is under control.”
