… Ife, Modakeke leaders appeal for calm
BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO
Tension heightened in Ile-Ife and its neighbouring town, Modakeke, Osun state on Friday following the killing of some farmers.
No fewer than five farmers who were on their way to farm on Friday morning were ambushed and killed by yet to be identified assailants along Toro road in Modakeke. The victims were said to be indignes of Modakeke.
Some eyewitnesses told The Point that the farmers were riding on two motorcycles before they were waylaid and murdered.
“The people who killed them might have been waiting for them to pass the route because they were on two bikes (motorcycles). They did not carry their motorcycles away. The farmers were all men,” a resident who spoke to our correspondent said in confidence.
When some other indigenes of Modakeke got wind of the incident, they were enraged. They visited the scene of the killing and evacuated the corpses of their kinsmen. The aggrieved indigenes reportedly took the corpses to the palace of their traditional ruler, the Ogunsuwa of Modakeke in protest.
They did not meet the monarch at the palace. Thereafter, they were said to have driven the corpses laid in the boot of a pickup truck to the palace of Ooni of Ife.
They allegedly met stiff resistance at the palace gate when some palace guards berated them for bringing corpses to the palace.
A clash had ensued between the palace guards and the aggrieved protesters which led to some being injured. A vigilante operative from Modakeke, who allegedly led the protesters to the palaces, was said to have sustained injuries and had to be hospitalised.
The development provoked violent demonstration by some aggrieved youths. In the melee, traders around Enuwa to Lagere in Ile-Ife hurriedly closed their shops while passersby scampered for safety when the demonstrators stormed the areas.
However, the presence of security operatives and a torrential rainfall in Ile-Ife later restored calm to the areas.
The Public Relations Officer of the Osun State Police Command, SP Yemisi Opalola, had confirmed the killing of the farmers and said some personnel were deployed to restore peace in the ancient town.
“I heard some people were killed and the Commissioner of Police, Mr Olawale Olokode has deployed more of our men to the scene. Our men are doing everything possible to restore peace in the area,” Opalola said.
When contacted, the media aide of Ooni’s palace, Moses Olafare did not pick phone call and neither did he respond to the text message sent to him.
Meanwhile, the President, Ife Development Board, Lawrence Awowoyin, has appealed to the people of the two towns to give peace a chance.
In his reaction to the violence that broke out after the killing of the farmers, he said that the towns would not welcome any crisis.
According to Awowoyi, “Ife and Modakeke are one and have been living together as one in peace and harmony since. We therefore urge our people from both towns not to allow anything to disrupt this relationship.
He warned the people against taking laws into their hands and admonished them to always direct their grievances to appropriate quarters.
Also, the President of Modakeke Progressive Union (MPU), Prince Julius Odegbemi, warned indigenes against acts capable of causing war between the towns.
“I appealed to my people when I heard the incident of killing, that they should be calm and maintain peaceful coexistence among themselves so as to prevent the situation from escalating.
“Because one can only know the beginning of war, no one can predict the end and whatever lives and property lost can never be regained,” Odegbemi said.
