By Shina Abubakar, Osogbo
Following the raging communal crisis in Ifon, Ilobu and Erin-Osun communities in Osun State, Governor Ademola Adeleke has threatened to suspend traditional rulers in the communities if clashes erupt in the towns again.
The communities have been at loggerheads with each other over land disputes which resulted in killings and razing of houses. Three persons were reportedly killed including an ex-councillor. Several people sustained gunshot wounds leading to the displacement of thousands of women and children in the area.
Governor Adeleke, after meeting with service commanders of the various security agencies in the state, adopted stringent measures and operational plans to restore peace in Ifon-Ilobu-Erin Osun communities and permanently stop the recurrence of the communal feud.
The meeting, according to a statement issued by the governor’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed, on Saturday, witnessed a separate closed-door meeting with traditional rulers and chiefs from the affected communities with stern warnings to embrace peace or face the full wrath of the law.
According to the statement, “The Governor threatened to suspend the traditional rulers of the affected towns if violence should resurface while those who sign peace undertakings will face the law if communal confrontation reoccurs.
“Various service commanders at the meeting discussed the presentations by the state governor and adopted several peace measures which are already under implementation.
“Part of the directives issues include immediate deployment of the joint task force with all necessary logistics for operational results, summoning of key ring leaders in the affected towns for interrogation and signing of peace undertaking, arrests and immediate prosecution of perpetrators of the violence, invoking of cyber crime act to nab those spreading old videos to cause more violence.”
Adeleke also used the opportunity to alert the security agencies to what he termed “other security threats” in the state arising from opposition destabilisation plots namely, plans to ignite conflicts across motor parks in the state; sponsoring of fake local government workers groups and hoodlum protest in the guise of teachers’ applicants protest among others.
While commending the security agencies for their patriotic service to the state, Governor Adeleke urged them to act on all the resolutions reached as he pledged his administration’s support for all peace moves by the service commanders.
In attendance at the gathering were service commanders from the Nigerian Army, the police, the Department of State Services, the Civil Defence Corps, the Immigration Service and the Amotekun Security Service among others.
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