By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan.
The Pan-Yoruba social political organization, Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) on Tuesday asked the Nigeria Police Force to conduct fresh “thorough and trustworthy investigation” on the Ile Ife clash between the Yoruba and Hausa people.
ARG in a statement made available to newsmen in Ibadan signed by its Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kunle Famoriyo, said the just released police report on the Ife clash from all indications “appear one-sided and tending towards a predetermined outcome”
“What is desired is a thorough and trustworthy investigation but it appears that is impossible to get from the Nigeria Police that have failed to produce a single arrest in cases of perpetual marauders and killers in Southern Kaduna, Benue and Enugu States but have within a week found a sudden ‘efficiency’ in the Ile-Ife crisis” it said .
ARG pointed out in the statement that “for instance, the sin of one of those paraded, Obimakinde Samuel, according to police information, was that he was “found with a fresh cut on his head suspected to have been inflicted on him during the crisis”, saying, “Mr. Obimakinde, according to police information, is obviously a victim”.
Emphasizing that Yoruba people are lovers of peace but also haters of injustice in any appearance or form, it vowed that it “would not allow our people to be deliberately made a scapegoat of the inherent failure of Nigeria’s nationality”.
“We contend that the Ife crisis, no matter how much the Police tends to make it an ethnic issue would never stand as one. It disturbingly raised the question of partisanship and cast a doubt on the police institution. But the whole world can now see the joke that the Nigeria police is in the temple of justice and fairness”.
Afenifere Renewal Group however charged the Osun state government to, “as a matter of urgency, inaugurate a commission of enquiry to establish the remote and immediate causes in a manner that will engender truth and reconciliation.
The group maintained that “in a violent clash that involves deaths, injuries, and arson on all sides, the Nigeria Police are saying that Yoruba people are the only culprits, that Yoruba people attacked their own people, and burnt the houses of their own people. Who would believe this?
”Where was the police when similar crisis broke out in Mile 12, Lagos, last year during which Yoruba people were killed and their properties razed and when a LASTMA official, Tajudeen Bakare, was brazenly murdered in the process of enforcing the Rule of Law? Yoruba people are lovers of peace but also haters of injustice in any appearance or form and we would not allow our people to be deliberately made a scapegoat of the inherent failure of Nigeria’s nationality.”