OGD, No sir! Tunde Oladunjoye had no hand in Ijebu Ife crisis By Wale Adedayo I have just finished reading a story detailing how former Ogun State Governor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, said a number of things about former Chairman of Ijebu East Local Government, Hon. Tunde Oladunjoye. This is not to hold brief for Oladunjoye. The man is capable of responding. But OGD was not factual concerning the killing of an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Omolodun, in Ijebu Ife. Reading the manner in which the ‘facts’ about the murder were tendered, it appears OGD is trying to set Oladunjoye up for arrest in a matter he knows NOTHING about. For the records, I was in Cardiff, United Kingdom when the Ijebu Ife mayhem began on 4 December, 2009. But as a prominent indigene of the town, our people alerted me immediately. My first call was to Egbon Gbemi Onakoya, who was Secretary to the State Government (SSG). I even called his cousin in London, Egbon Dipo Onakoya, to talk to him as well, when he was not doing the needful. I am from Okeliwo, Oke Ife, where Toba Baisan, whose death triggered the Ijebu Ife mayhem hailed from. We are almost cousins. The parents are like my parents too. And we remain neighbours as my house is just a shouting distance from theirs. The immediate and remote cause of the Ijebu Ife mayhem had to do with the crude manner the vigilante service of the town was operating - and without credible supervision. Pent-up anger against those supporting the vigilante resulted in the crisis, not Oladunjoye as OGD would want the authorities in Abuja to note. It is a very crude lie. The remote cause of the crisis was the high-handedness of the local vigilantes who had turned themselves into unofficial policemen. Vigilantes insist on collecting bail money from husband and wife who have domestic quarell and got detained. Small problems reported to vigilantes become what the police could not even do. Vigilantes became a group used for settling scores. Baisan, a tailor, was working late at night, when as usual, the vigilantes insisted he should put off his generator. And you would want to ask what a generator has to do with security. They insisted nobody should put on light in an era when modern societies are trying to light up everywhere for security. The boy refused, and insisted he was in his father’s house doing honest work. They descended on him, beat him to pulp and forcefully took his generator away. A Baale, representing the Kabiyesi, was in Okeliwo when this happened. They did NOTHING to call the vigilantes to order. It was alleged Baisan was beaten with ‘nkan’ in the night of the confrontation, thus the sickness he developed later. Yoruba or Ijebu Technology has potency in some areas. But whether this is true or not, I cannot say. But I know Baisan to be a regularly sick person. He was always frail. But very diligent in his work, as he has assisted to train some unemployed people for me before. His death, barely a few days after the beating by the vigilantes was an opportunity for the angry youths, who had wanted a way of ‘dealing’ with the vigilantes. They insisted it was the nkan the vigilantes used to beat Baisan that killed him. It was the leadership of the vigilantes the youths targetted along with their houses and other personal properties that night of the riot. The all-night riot, and the early morning one, when they took Baisan’s corpse to Kabiyesi’s house could have been averted with quality leadership in the town. That had NOTHING to do with Oladunjoye. At best, what he can do was to have invited the police. The youths of the town were just waiting for an opportunity like that of Omolodun to vent their anger. Unfortunately, when the police were brought in after Baisan’s unfortunate death, it appeared the SIB guys did not do enough groundwork before the Area Commander moved in. If the SIB had done a proper homework, they would have established that the police should distance themselves from the vigilantes, at least, for the time being in order to arrange a lasting peace. The youths saw in the police a strong supporter of the vigilantes. And the police arrived the town in company with the leadership of the vigilantes. Information at my disposal has it that one of the policemen that escorted Omolodun shot and killed a young man, when argument broke out as the police entered the town following all night rioting. It was the reprisal attack against the policemen that claimed Omolodun’s life. We are not barbarians in Ijebu Ife. A young man was gunned down. There was reprisal against the police, most of who took to their heels, leaving the ACP behind. So, where did Oladunjoye come in? That it got to that level displayed a gross absence of quality leadership in the town itself, not the local government, whose chairman at the time was from a neighbouring town, Itele. Yes, Oladunjoye was chairman, but NEVER before in Ijebu Ife history has ANYBODY come in here to dictate what we’ll do to us. Not even when the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) came with their kill-and-go in 1983. We held our ground, and gave as much as we could give to them and their civilian counterparts. A local government chairman would not have been able to do anything without support from credible agbalagbas on ground. And that was a seriously missing ingredient – agba ko si ni ilu. This is just to set the record straight, because I have my issues with both OGD and Oladunjoye. The former chairman’s conscience will tell him the role he played against my person in the build up to 10 January 2009 and shortly after that during which one was painted as a liar. Of course, that of OGD is legendary. But as an Oodua son, we abhor mixing up of facts. Whatever OGD’s Commission of Inquiry arrived at could be ziggy in the hands of an angry former boss looking for every means to nail an ‘enemy’ employee. Be that as it may, Ijebu Ife should not be used. Both men should find a neutral place or Itele, where Kabiyesi Moyegeso can give them a level playing field to tackle themselves. Ijebu Ife has had enough. A o fe wahala ni ilu yi mo. E fi wa sile!
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 15:50:54 +0000
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