Ile-Ife Crisis: Ooni, Hausa Leader, Aregbesola Sue for Peace

-Vow to Deal with Perpetrators

By Abdulrofiu Agboola

The Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi has appealed to the Yorubas and Hausas in the ancient town to sheath their swords and embrace peace, describing the Hausa Community in Ile-Ife as his subjects and co-owners of the town.

Oba Adeyeye who said has been enjoying tremendous loyalty in the last 14months of his reign from the Hausa community, described the clash between the Hausas and the Yorubas as ugly, unfortunate and disheartening.

The frontline traditional ruler spoke just as the leader of Hausa community (Sherik Hausa) Alhaji Muhamud Madagali described the crisis as unexpected because of the cordial relationship between the Hausas and the Yorubas in Ile-Ife.

Madagali blamed hoodlums for the crisis, urging state government to provide adequate security for his people to forestall further attack and as well compensate them loss incurred in the violence attack and provide proper medical attention to the injured people.

Addressing the people at the Ooni’s palace, Governor Rauf Aregbesola who visited the ancient town to assess the level of destruction caused by the clash, expressed sadness over the incident, saying it was disheartening to experience such dastard actin Ile-Ife again, after the end of tragic event of Ife/ Modakeke war fifteen years ago.

Aregbesola maintained that the northerners in Ile-Ife are not strangers but part and parcel of Ile-Ife community, as many of them were born and bred in the town, promising that those involved in the crisis would be apprehended and prosecuted.

The assured the Hausa community in the state of adequate protection of their lives and properties as government is already on top of the communal clash which occurred in Ile-Ife.

He said: “This is the cradle of mankind by the belief of the Yorubas, a revered town of this pedigree should not be in the news for bad thing. This is the land of peace and love, we have not experience this in the last six years, and I believe such thing would never happen again.”

Aregbesola vowed to do everything within the capacity of government to assist and compensate the those people that their properties, calling on citizens of the state as well as other tribes resident in Osun to go about their lawful duties without fear of intimidation as government has put every thing in place for their security.

In his address Oba Adeyeye said: “I was not happy about the whole crisis. I will always treat the Hausas residing in our town as my subjects. I have been tremendously enjoying the loyalty of their leadership.”

The Monarch urged all the Yoruba people to always embrace the Hausa and other ethnic groups as their brothers to enjoy maximum peaceful coexistence.

“My people, we are working to ensure that things don’t get out of hand. We must let peace reign in Ile-Ife and respect one another. Yorubaland is a place of love, we show love to every visitors in our land and our kinsmen in other parts of the country have equally enjoyed love from their hosts.. Let’s always maintain peace and harmony with them here too”, he said.

Ooni assured the Hausas of safety of their lives and properties, saying “The police and army personnel have been deployed to sustain the normalcy. The Osun state government has extended the curfew in Ile-Ife which will start from 6pm and end by 7am till Monday. We all need to do our part to ensure peace.”

While giving an account of the incident, the leader of Hausa community, Madagali said they have been living peacefully in Yoruba communities for ages, reiterating that the state government should provide adequate security for his people in Ile-Ife.