Communal Crisis Between Ipetumodu and Ashipa.

FROM PRINCE ODUDUWA UNIVERSITY

The Commission of Enquiry set up by the Osun State Government to look into the communal crisis that erupted in January this year between Ashipa and Ipetumodu communities in Ife North Local Government of the state has recommended that the two communities should be made to pay certain amount for officially sponsoring and supporting the crisis morally and materially.
The commission headed by Justice Oyejide Falola while submitting its report to Governor Rauf Aregbesola also recommended that Ife-North Local Government should also be surcharged for allowing the establishment of market in Ipetumodu on a government acquired land without approval from the state government.
The commission chairman said: “We have virtually resolved the dispute between the two communities especially the market day issue and boundary. We have also recommended that some persons be investigated and possibly prosecuted”. It also recommended that the victims of the clash should be compensated by the government.
“There is a proliferation of arms and ammunition in the axis of the two communities. Those in possession are reportedly being protected by elites in the society. We have recommended that police should take steps to clean up the area of these dangerous weapons,” he added.
Justice Falola urged the governor to set up implementation committee to review the recommendations. While receiving the report, the governor advised that people should exhibit maturity in making claims to land so that communities will not witness violence that will diminish human existence.
Aregbesola also advised that differences on land should not lead to violence due to the fact that there will always be claims and counter claims on land hence the need for a matured way of resolving such issues. However, in a bid to rid the state of communal violence and other anti-social vices threatening the peace of communities, Aregbesola, read a riot act to people in possession of illegal weapons to voluntarily surrender such arms to relevant authorities.
He said those concerned and had been in habitual breach of the peace and trampling on the rule of law to prepare themselves ahead of the May 29, hand over after which they would enjoy one-week of grace which would be called a week of peace and disarmament.