Osun imposes curfew on warring communities

OCTOBER 23, 2013  

Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti
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Osun State Government on Tuesday imposed a dusk to dawn curfew on Oba Oke and Oba  Ile communities in Olorunda Local Government Area of the state following the bloody clash between indigenes  of the two neighbouring communities on Sunday evening.

The announcement was made via the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation in Osogbo on Tuesday and was signed by the Secretary to the Osun State Government, Alhaji Moshood Adeoti.

The curfew is expected to be from 6pm to 6am every day.

The state government urged residents of the state to cooperate with security agents and warned that anybody, who contravened the order, would be dealt with accordingly.

Sources in the two communities told  PUNCH Metro that policemen and officers of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in the state were deployed in strategic locations in the communities to ensure that the crisis was not renewed.

The Public Relations Officer of the Osun State Command of NSCDC, Mr. Ayo Olowe, also confirmed to our correspondent that peace had been restored to the communities.

He added that the State Commandant of the agency, Mr. Felix Gbolade, had instructed the head of the NSCDC post in the area to organise a peace meeting between the leaders of the two communities.

A police source, who requested anonymity, said youths of the two communities had almost turned the clash between them to an annual event. He said security agents had noticed the trend and had begun work on how to end it.

The Oloba of Oba Oke, Oba Dahunsi Iyiola, narrowly escaped death when hoodlums invaded his palace and set it ablaze alongside other buildings in the town on Sunday.

Two persons were reportedly injured in the clash while policemen, deployed to quell the uprising, also escaped being killed as some of the hoodlums opened fire on their patrol van.