Following last Friday’s clash between some Yoruba and Hausa traders in Shasha market in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State, the O’odua Peoples Congress(OPC) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the incident.
The tribal clash led to the death of a cobbler, Sakirundeen Adeola, while properties worth several millions were destroyed in its wake.
In a statement issued by its Publicity Secretary, Barrister Yinka Oguntimehin, at the weekend, the group expressed concern that a minor misunderstanding between a pregnant woman and an Hausa man could degenerate into a tribal crisis leading to death and destruction in the community.
The OPC publicity scribe lamented that such crisis could have been avoided, even as he maintained that Yoruba are a very peaceful and accommodating people.
“It is unfortunate that a minor misunderstanding between two traders could lead to death and destruction,” the OPC lamented in the statement. “Yoruba are everywhere in Nigeria, especially, in the North, mostly in Kano and Kaduna. However, it is on record that no Yoruba native has ever instigated any crisis in the north.
“Therefore, we are using this opportunity to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the circumstances surrounding the ugly incidence, so as to bring the culprits to book and also forestall further crisis.”
Oguntimehin also expressed dismay at the report of a Divisional Police officer (DPO) in charge of Ile-Igbon Division, Surulere Local Government Area of Ogbomoso in Oyo State,Adepoju Ayodeji, shooting an operative of Amotekun for arresting Fulani herdsmen that allegedly destroyed a cassava farm.
“The police officer should be made to face the music for shooting an Amotekun corp member,” he said. “No matter who was involved and the circumstances surrounding the incident, the police boss should have been professional enough to know when to pull the trigger.
“It is a grave error of judgment for such a senior officer of the police force to shoot an Amotekun corp knowing full well that the south west security outfit was backed by the law.
“For a police officer to have shot such a corp is not only a disgrace to the police hierarchy but also a sad reminder of the systemic failure of an institution that is supposed to protect the citizens, maintain law and order, now becoming the law breaker and a threat to the peace of the society,” Oguntimehin regretted in the statement.
While urging traditional rulers, political players,and stakeholders in Yoruba land to take issues of security in the southwest very serious, the OPC chieftain added also that the region cannot afford to see the southwest becoming vulnerable to kidnappers,th bandits and criminal herders as it is in the north west, southeast and north central.
“I think it is in our own interest to take security issues in our region seriously,” he continued. “The governors of all the states in the southwest should work together, using Amotekun as an outfit to rid the region of all criminals, both in the rural or urban area of the southwest.”
Oguntimehin, however, appealed to Nigeria’s politicians, irrespective of their different political affiliations, not to play politics with the spate of insecurity in the region, disclosing that reports at his disposal indicated that in the last two months, they had been playing politics with the dangerous situation.
Meanwhile, Oyo state governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde, at the weekend, ordered the immediate and indefinite closure of Shasha market, following reports of wanton destructions and breach of peace in the area.
The governor had also approved the imposition of curfew in Shasha between 6pm and 7am.
