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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