Ile-Ife crisis: Arrest Hausa-Fulani belligerents in 48hrs-OPC tells FG, Police

A 48hr-ultamatum to arrest the Fulani-Hasua indigenes involved in the crisis in Ile-Ife has been issued to the Federal Government and the Nigerian Police Force.This warning was given in a statement by the OPC founder, Dr. Fredrick Fasehun, on Thursday.Recall that bloody crisis erupted in the ancient town”Ž last week between Hausa settlers and Yoruba indigenes, leaving several persons dead and many injured.Fasehun said the crisis erupted between the two ethnic groups and wants everyone involved to be arrested and prosecuted.The group expresses their displeasure in the fact that 20 Yoruba persons, including a monarch, were arrested and paraded by the police while not a single Hausa/Fulani belligerent was detained.Faseun further said, “We hereby call on the Federal Government to intervene within the next 48 hours to ensure that justice is institutionalised and no side is provoked to defend justice according to its whims and caprices. Various communities have Abraham as their father. A word is enough for the wise.“The police and the Federal Government appear determined to make scapegoats of Yoruba living in Ife over this crisis. It is unfortunate, strange and insensitive that two people are fighting and authorities are arresting only one party in this unfortunate mayhem.“We sympathise with all victims and casualties over this moment of madness that has eroded two centuries of harmonious cohabitation between the Hausa settlers and their Yoruba hosts. But we demand equal treatment of everyone involved on both sides of this crisis”.Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, was not left out as his role in the arrest was questioned by the group.The group maintained that Kwankwaso stampeded Governor Rauf Argebesola of Osun State and the Commissioner of Police into the ”˜senseless’ arrests.“Kwankwanso’s post-violence role in Ife can be likened to that played by Gen. Muhammadu Buhari who in October 2000 travelled to Ibadan to challenge the late governor Lam Adesina over the reprisal on Fulani herdsmen who had unleashed an orgy of raping and killings on Yoruba farming communities.“This kind of bias will only embolden belligerent Hausa-Fulani throughout Nigeria and give them pariah status amongst other nationalities,” the OPC warned.