We regret not acquiring property in Anambra – Yoruba community laments

The President General of Yoruba community in Anambra State, Alhaji Ademola Okeleye has lamented the deliberate decision of his people not to acquire landed property in the state despite the accommodating nature of the Igbo.

Okeleye, who is a chartered accountant and has been operating an audit firm for the past 20 years in Anambra State, told reporters in Awka that the problem Yoruba people have is their belief on arrival that they would not stay long in the state, which was why many of them do not acquire landed property like Igbo people do in other parts of the country.

He, however, said that it is not late as his people have seen the need to invest in the state.

According to him, there is no iota of truth that Igbo people are hostile to their visitors, recalling that even during the last general elections, Yoruba people supported and voted candidates of their choice without molestation from anybody.

He said that those who saw the election as a do -or -die affair in some parts of the country forgot that politics is a game played by politicians and wondered why ordinary people should allow themselves to be used to cause disharmony in the country.

He said: “There are over 500000 Yoruba people living in Anambra State and nobody harasses them for any reason. The problem many Yoruba people have is that what they come into the state, they think they will not stay long, but many of them have ended up marrying Igbo women and settling down permanently.

“And unlike the impression in some quarters that most Yoruba people in the state are artisans and tailors, the truth is that many of them teach in the universities and polytechnics and own businesses across the major cities in the state.

“Many Yoruba people were born in Anambra and they speak Igbo fluently. It is therefore not true that Igbo people are not accommodating”.

He specifically commended the former director of protocol to former Governor Willie Obiano, Chief Uzuegbunam Okagbue for making Yoruba people feel at home whenever the need arose and called on other ethnic groups to emulate him.