Akeem Lasisi, Friday Olokor, Adelani Adepegba and Godwin Isenyo
The pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, on
Monday, faulted the arrest and parade of suspects involved in the riot
at Ile-Ife on March 8, saying no Hausa/Fulani was arrested.
The Publicity Secretary of the group,
Mr. Yinka Odumakin, in an interview with one of our correspondents in
Abuja, said the parade of the suspects in Abuja showed “undue sectional
deployment of federal might.”
The police had, on Monday, at the Force
Headquarters, Abuja, paraded 20 suspects, including a traditional ruler,
Oba Ademola Ademiluyi, the Lawarikan of Apojeland, for alleged
involvement in the Ile-Ife crisis.
The Force said 46 persons were killed
and properties worth millions of naira destroyed during the mayhem while
96 others were hospitalised at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching
Hospital out of which 81 of them were treated and discharged while 15
others were still on admission.
The Force Public Relations Officer,
Jimoh Moshood, said 38 suspects were earlier arrested, detained and
investigated, out of which 18 persons, who were not involved in the
violence, were released.
Checks, however, indicated that all
those paraded for their involvement in the violence were Yoruba, but the
police spokesman denied that the investigation was targeted at a
particular group.
He insisted that the suspects were
indicted by the investigators, noting that evidence collated by the
police showed that the suspects were all involved in the violence that
rocked the ancient city.
Moshood stated, “It is not a one-sided
thing; suspects from different backgrounds were arrested and some of
them were released when investigations showed that they had nothing to
do with the violence.
“To be specific, 38 suspects from
various backgrounds and ethnic groups were arrested, but 20 of them, who
were found culpable for direct and indirect participation in the
killing of innocent people were detained and they would be prosecuted.”
He did not, however, explain why none of
the Hausa traders, who allegedly started the fracas and killed some
residents, were not among the suspects.
Giving the background to the crisis, the
police spokesman explained that one Kuburat Eluwole triggered the
violence when she allegedly slapped one Abubakar Mohammed in the course
of an argument.
Eluwole’s husband, Akeem, a.k.a. Escort,
allegedly sponsored some thugs who attacked the Hausa residents of
Sabo, leading to the death of 46 persons who were allegedly killed with
knives and axes.
Moshood said, “On Tuesday, March 7, 2017
at about 2010hrs, one Alhaji Nasiru Magaji of No. 50 Sabo Street,
Ile-Ife, Osun State, reported at Moore Police Station that one Oba
Ademola Ademiluyi, the Lawarikan of Apoje land, one Eluwole Akeem ‘m’
(a.k.a Escort) and his wife, Kuburat, brought some hoodlums with
cutlasses and other dangerous weapons to attack Hausa residents at the
Sabo area of Ile-Ife over a fight between Mohammed of Sabo and Kuburat.”
Based on the report at the Moore Police
Station, the police said a case of conduct likely to cause breach of the
peace was made against the duo of Kuburat and Mohammed.
“Unexpectedly, on Wednesday March 8, the
peace of the area was shattered with the eruption of crisis that led to
the gruesome killings of 46 people,” Moshood stated.
But the Oba denied involvement in the
crisis, saying he was in Lagos when the violence erupted, adding that he
did not know anything about the incident.
“I was in Lagos on March 7 when the
violence erupted and when I heard about it, I reported at the Bar Beach
police station. When I got to Ile-Ife, I saw the two groups throwing
stones at each other and someone asked me to intervene, but I said I
don’t speak Hausa.
“The police arrested me, but I don’t know anything about the issue,” he said in Yoruba.
Arrests, undue sectional deployment of federal might –Afenifere
Faulting the police, Afenifere said it
objected seriously to the parade of the “so-called suspects in Abuja
that is hundreds of miles away from the scene of the conflict.”
According to the group, the right place to investigate this disturbance is Osun State.
It stated, “The Abuja show is undue
sectional deployment of federal might to intimidate and harass a party
in the conflict. It is direct fallout of the threat of the Interior
Minister (Abdulrahaman Danbazzau) after he visited Ife.
“The minister is not on record to have
visited any scene of conflict where Fulani herdsmen have inflicted
‘massacres’ on their host communities in the Southern and Middle Belt
communities since he was appointed.
“The Ife crisis was sparked by the
beheading of a Yoruba vulcaniser and the subsequent parade of his
severed head on a pole. How come there is no member of the Arewa
community paraded by the police?
“We reject the one-eyed Magistrate that
the police have become in this matter and which is as a result of the
ethnic composition of the police presently.
“We demand the immediate transfer of the
suspects to Osun state. We will resist this ethnic vengeance through
the police except we see arrests of the Fulani aggressors in the Ife
conflict.”
But the National Publicity Secretary of
the pan-northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum,
Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, said he would not comment on the arrest and
the parade of the suspects in Abuja.
“I won’t comment on that matter. We
don’t want to give anything ethnic or religious colouration; that’s why I
don’t want to comment on it. Sorry, I am in the hospital attending to
people. One of my best friends is ill please,” he said.
Arraign those arrested –Group
On its part, Ife Club 1, an association
of elite indigenes of Ile-Ife, Osun State, called on the police to
hasten the process of prosecuting people arrested in connection with the
recent clash.
The President of the club, Chief Adebisi
Ogundipe, made the call in Lagos on Monday at a briefing by the
executives and other senior members of the club.
Ogundipe said there was also the need to
reveal the identities of those in
detention, so that people would see whether or not the allegation of
partiality on the part of security agencies was true or not.
He said, “The crisis in Ife is
surprising giving the age-long harmonious relationship between the two
communities. They had related with each other for almost two centuries
and operated like brothers and sisters with inter-ethnic marriages and a
lot of business relationships.
“As a lawyer, I will not support any act
of violence and illegality; but the security officials posted there did
not demonstrate enough professionalism in the way they handled the
situation during and after the crisis.
“They were supposed to arrest those
involved on both sides. But even now that arrests have been made, all we
are saying is, let the law take its course. The police should quickly
arraign those in their custody. That is what our law says.’’
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