Ile-Ife Crisis: Don’t Exhibit Ethnic Bias, Fayose, Monarch Tell Police
Victor Ogunje
Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has cautioned the police against ethnic bias over the handling of its investigation on the recent crisis in Ile-Ife, Osun State that led to the death of more than 40 people.
Fayose said: “It appears that the police have so far demonstrated ethnic bias in its investigation and this is not good for the unity of Nigeria and its people.”
The governor, who condemned the killing of innocent people and destruction of property in Ile-Ife, said; “whether committed by Yoruba, Ibo, Hausa or any tribe, crime is crime and it must be treated as such. However, handling of crime must be without ethnic bias.”
The governor said it was strange that “in a clash involving the people of Ile-Ife, who are Yorubas and Hausa, who are settlers in the ancient town, only Yorubas were arrested, taken to Abuja and paraded before the press.”
In a statement issued in Ado Ekiti yesterday by his Special
Assistant on Public Communications, Governor Fayose, who condemned the mayhem, said: “If there was a clash between Yoruba people and Hausas in Ile-Ife, are the police now saying that only the Yorubas took part in the crisis?
“Both Yorubas and Hausa were attacked. Property belonging to both Yorubas and Hausas were destroyed. Are the police sayings that those 20 Yoruba people that they paraded in Abuja were the ones who attacked the Yoruba people that were also victims of the crisis and destroyed those houses belonging to the indigenes of Ile-Ife that were destroyed?”
Meanwhile, a traditional ruler in Ekiti State and Alawe of IlaweEkiti, Oba Adebanji Alabi, has called on the Osun State Governor, Rauf Aregbesola, to give adequate compensations to the victims.
Oba Adebanji, a former envoy, called for total peace in Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba race, urging the Hausa and Yoruba communities to embrace the peace parley put in place by Ooni, Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi to douse the raging tension.
Oba Adebanji, who spoke in Ilawe Ekiti, yesterday described the killings as worrisome, saying Ile-Ife has always played a fatherly role in the unity of Yorubaland in particular and Nigeria in general.
“I want to praise the courage and timely intervention of His Imperial Majesty , the Ooni of Ife for his historic visit to the sceneof the incident at the peak of the crisis to quell the violence. This is highly commendable and worthy of emulation by all traditional rulers.
“I appeal for calm, love and unity among the people of Ile-Ife and in fact everywhere in Nigeria. I plead for a total halt to this kind of menace and unwholesome activities of terrorists, kidnappers and insurgents amongst us all in Nigeria in the interest of national unity and meaningful development.”