Fayose cautions police over handling of Ile-Ife crisis

Group worries over South-West monarchs’ silence

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has cautioned the police over the handling of its investigation on the recent crisis in Ile-Ife, Osun State. He 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.”

Besides, a Yoruba socio-cultural group has called on all traditional rulers in the zone, including the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, not to remain docile while Hausa-Fulani intensify their alleged treachery against Yoruba over the recent Ile-Ife mayhem where scores of people died.

The group, Atayese Federalist Movement led by Mr. Tokunbo Ajasin, wondered why no single Yoruba monarch or leader waded into the crisis since it started. In a statement issued in Ado-Ekiti yesterday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Fayose, who condemned the mayhem and described the loss of innocent souls as unfortunate, said there was no way the police can convince Nigerians that only those 20 Yoruba that were paraded in Abuja were involved in the crisis.

He expressed concern that the same police that intervened promptly in the Ile-Ife crisis, made arrests and paraded 20 people as alleged masterminds of the mayhem, had been unable to arrest and parade any of the Fulani herdsmen that have wasted and still wasting the lives of thousands of Nigerians across the country.

“If there was a clash between Yoruba people and Hausa in Ile-Ife, are the police now saying that only the Yoruba took part in the crisis” “In my own opinion, the investigation so far conducted by the police was done with ethnic bias and I demand for thorough investigation that is devoid of ethnic sentiments,” he said.