By Gbenga Olarinoye, Dapo Akinrefon & Ishola Balogun
THE five-man judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by the Osun State government to look into the ethnic clash that occurred between Yoruba and Hausa communities in Ile-Ife on March 8, 2017 has assured all parties involved in the crisis of neutrality, just as it called for memorandum from all interested parties.

Ile-Ife clash

This came as the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum and the Igbimo Odo Yoruba were engaged in war of words over the clash.

Members of the commission, yesterday, also visited Sabo area ot the town where the incident took place and addressed leaders of both Yoruba and Hausa communities.

Speaking at the palace of the Ooni of Ife, chairman of the commission, Justice Moshood Adeigbe, explained that all parties would be given fair-hearing, assuring that members would not be compromised.

He said the commission was out to ensure that the real perpetrators of the act were brought to book and ensure that all warring factions were appeased.

Justice  Adeigbe said: “We are here to inform you of our mission. We are men of integrity and we want to assure you that we will be totally neutral in the discharge of our duty. We will do our job without fear or favour to anyone or group in the matter. We hope to have your support.”

Ooni harps on fairness

In his remarks, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi pledged his support and that of his chiefs in ensuring that the members of the commission accomplish their mission.

He admonished them to avoid bias, stating that they should be honest in their assignment.

He informed members of the commission that many Yoruba leaders were interested in the outcome of their inquiries.

Explaining that his recent trip to the United States of America shortly after the incident was to foster peaceful co-existence among Nigerians, the monarch said: “I took permission from the governor of the state before traveling few days after the incident happened. My trip to the US was for very important reasons and I met many northern leaders including the Sultan who helped to speak to their people.

“I am pleased to receive you all; I am fully with you. As you have said, please be neutral so that you can get to the bottom of what triggered the unfortunate incident. Because it happened at the epicentre of the Yoruba race, a lot of people are interested in the outcome of your mission. I have received many phone calls from different parts of the world as regards this and I pray such doesn’t occur in any part of the country again”, he added.

Yoruba, northern youths trade blames

Meanwhile, the Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, has warned the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organization, Afenifere, to allow the court and the security agents do their work over the recent crisis in Ile-Ife.

AYCF in a statement by its National President, Mallam Yerima Usman Shettima, said the law should be allowed to take its full course over the apprehended suspects that were paraded in Abuja by the Police, saying; “We frown at the gang-up to harass and intimidate the courts and the police from investigating and punishing those found guilty so that a repeat of this sad episode would be avoided.”

The Arewa youth leader took exception to those described as “marauders who are hiding behind ethnic umbrella and are desperately trying to pervert the course of justice,” cautioning them to tread carefully so that their latest action would not provoke reprisal attacks.”

He maintained that “we are aware that no one has the monopoly of violence or creating hot-air balloons in order to cover up an organized attack on people doing legitimate business in any party of our country. We watch with dismay, how the Afenifere is beginning to fan the embers of hatred against the victims and creating heroes out of the attackers. This amounts to a subtle ethnic cleansing campaign and we wish to warn Afenifere and its paymasters to shun such a dangerous act.”

He, however, warned that; “Let Afenifere and their fellow collaborators in this massive cover-up campaign bear in mind that we, the Northerners, are watching and if we were not law-abiding, we would have followed the same path of ethnic antagonism and defending the indefensible. We can only stress that this is a crucial moment in the history of this nation and the most important thing is how to move forward in all spheres by shunning acts capable of breeding large-scale violence in the North in the name of reprisal attacks.”

Yoruba youths spit fire

Responding to the AYCF tirade, the Igbimo Odo Yoruba lampooned the northern youth leader saying; “We have read with utmost consternation, a statement credited to one Mr. Yerima Shettima, a self-acclaimed leader of a relatively unknown Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, where he purportedly warned, the leaders of Yoruba groups including the pan Yoruba Socio-cultural organization, Afenifere and our revered Preacher and icon, Pastor Tunde Bakare, over comments credited to them, on the recent ethnic clash, involving the Hausa Community and the Indigenes of Ile-Ife.”

Its convener, Mr Olufemi Lawson faulted Shetimma’s statement saying his remark was an untold assault upon “our corporate intelligence, integrity as a people.”

He said: “As all other peoples of Nigeria abundantly know by now, the Yoruba nation is no strangers to antics of the North and its agents like the poorly educated Yerima Shettima, in their attempt to make others feel inferior in a nation that we all own and much more in our own land, going by his use of uncultured languages in the said statement.”

Lawson said; “While not willing to engage this paid paper tiger of the Arewa in details of the emptiness of his threat and that of his sponsors against the Yoruba nation, may we remind Yerima and his Arewa paymasters, that as it had happened often in the past, the Hausa resident refugees in Yoruba land, in their characteristic disrespect of their hosts in all parts of Nigeria, have chosen to turn the situation in Ife into a conquest between themselves and the Yoruba cradle.

“We need to warn them very seriously that they are unfortunately making their position in the Yoruba kingdom very precarious from now on.

“We restate the mind of the Yoruba people and wish to state it clear that the Yoruba have never and would never be captured by intruders such as Yerima and his ilk, no matter the circumstance. We are also stressing the importance of justice and equity, as we shall not allow the police, to use our collective resources as a nation, to promote ethnic agenda, as exhibited by the one-sided arrest made after the crisis,” he stated.