Two erstwhile peaceful communities in Osun state are currently at each other’s throats over a disputed piece of land. LATEEF IBRAHIM reports that lives are being lost while property are also being destroyed.
The rift between Ifon in Orolu local government and Ilobu in Irepodun local government areas again manifested on October 4, 2023 and no fewer than eight people were killed while some residents were rendered homeless following the destruction of property worth millions of naira.
The two communities were very close to the extent that one could hardly differentiate the boundary between them. They had lived in harmony as friends before the dispute over a parcel of land tore them apart.
How is started
Trouble started over a parcel of land between the communities in 2005 and many were sent to the grave while a lot more were rendered homeless. The intervention of the state government under former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola halted the war between the two communities. Nobody knew that the halt was only temporary.
During the period of former Governor Rauf Aregbesola, the state government was fast in arresting the situation and all stakeholders in Ilobu, Ifon and Erin-Osun were called to the table for dialogue and possible solutions. But findings showed that the Ifon people did not consent to the agreement and the state government made a gazette in which the Ifon people alleged that their land was ceded to the Ilobu people.
Military accuses of fueling latest rift
However, the renewed crisis between Ifon and Ilobu manifested recently in August 2023 when members of the Ifon-Orolu communities accused the Chief of Army Staff, General Taoreed Lagbaja, who hailed from Ilobu of attempting to incite communal crisis in the state following his alleged move to take over their land for a purported company.
The Regent, who doubles as the Eesa of Ifon, Chief Babatunde Oyetunji, said the community is not opposed to developmental projects, but said it would not allow its land to be taken forcefully for the sake of its neighbouring community.
Military denies any involvement
The Nigeria Army quickly denied any attempt to take over the land but admitted that a retired senior officer conceptualised an intervention project; a medical centre in Osun state which has not even been formally forwarded to the Chief of Army Staff for approval since the Department of Civil-Military Affairs at the Army Headquarters is yet to receive requisite information to enable it to initiate a comprehensive proposal for the project.
Outcome of latest rift
Almost a month after the allegation against the COAS, a 28-year-old admission seeker, Ibrahim Kudus in Okanala, Irepodun local government was killed and set ablaze by unknown men. This incident on September 17, triggered another communal crisis that bothered on high level suspicion over the disputed land.
On October 4, another fracas ensued when some people who claimed to have hailed from Ifon alleged that some people attacked them inside a forest and injured them. This development that should have been averted eventually led to a cataclysmic reaction.
The special security adviser to the state governor, Samuel Ojo, who had sensed a danger, raised a memo titled: ‘looming security threat and impending danger to lives and property between Ilobu and Ifon’ saying that intelligent reports indicate rising tension and internecine strife between Ilobu and Ifon townships the tonight of Wednesday 4th October 2023.
“It is therefore imperative for all the security agencies to swing into action tonight by mobilising security operatives to the Ilobu/Ifon axis to curb the impeding/envisaging danger that might cause the residents loss of lives and properties. From reliable sources, some of the residents of both towns were seen with their pump-action barrels, dane guns and clubs with other dangerous weapons this afternoon, warming up for tonight’s duel,” Ojo said.
However, despite the security alert, the crisis snowballed into war before dawn and losses were counted on both sides of the communities.
The secretary of Ifon-Orilu Progressive Union Board of Trustees, Prince Jide Akinyooye explained that efforts to arrest the situation proved abortive as the government only declared a curfew without mobilising security, hence the purported killings and destruction of property before dawn.
“I called the CP to send a tactical team but they didn’t. He later sent 16 policemen with five men from Ilobu. Later we learnt that they intercepted a police vehicle. The state government declared a curfew and everybody believed that nobody would move and security would take over the situation. To our surprise, the fighters came out during the curfew. This happened till around 11 p.m. I called the CP again and he directed me to call the area commander. I called the Area Commander that the DPO had sustained an injury. I called the SA to the governor on security matter. By daybreak, the security is nowhere to be found again.
“The present government should try to correct the error made by Rauf Aregbesola by making sure that the gazette that is causing the problem, the same gazette that caused the crisis between Ilobu and Erin-Osun in 2021 should be withdrawn. In other words, the government should look into the gazette holistically. He should correct the wrong,” Akinyooye said.
Contrarily, the Otun-jagun and spokesperson to Olobu in council, Chief Adegoke Ogunsola, explained that the announcement made on the radio by Ifon people about their intention to carry sacrifices to the land belonging to Ilobu people caused the crisis saying, “When we heard this, we alerted all the Baales that they should be vigilant.”
State gov’t intervention
After the killings, the state government declared a dusk-to-dawn curfew and summoned stakeholders in the two communities to a meeting for a necessary solution. While Governor Ademola Adeleke warned against the reoccurrence of the crisis, he declared that the government would take possession of the land pending the final settlement of the crisis.
