ILE-IFE CLASH: OPC says IGP is a bigot, wants him sacked

Dr. Frederick Fasehun, Founder of the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), has called for the sack of the Inspector-General of Police, Alhaji Ibrahim Idris, over charges of tribalism and prejudice.

Fasehun stated that the police boss has shown himself to be a bigot, unfit to head the nation’s police force.

The OPC President said the IGP’s recent response to allegations that only Yoruba people were arrested following the crisis between Hausa and Yoruba in Ife town, Osun State, showed clearly that the police boss was following an ethnic script.

“The IG just confirmed that only Yoruba were arrested in a conflict between Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani people; that is prejudicial and that is unacceptable,” Fasehun declared in a statement circulated in Lagos on Monday.

Fasehun said: “Idris is a man with an agenda. He has shown himself a bigot. And he is unfit to be the IG of Police in a cosmopolitan and pluralistic country like Nigeria. Before he smears President Muhammadu Buhari, the President should offload him.”

In the backlash of criticism from Yoruba leaders following the parade of 20 suspects, including a Yoruba monarch, Idris last week said after a meeting with the President at Aso Rock, Abuja, that crime had no tribe.

According to Fasehun, for the Police IG to have made such a statement was “an admission of tribalism, unbefitting of the exalted position of the Inspector-General of the Nigerian police. It is a confirmation that the police under Mr. Ibrahim Idris took the prejudicial step to arrest only Yoruba people although the crisis pitched two tribes against each other.

The OPC leader said that by Idris’s statement, it was clear that the IG had taken sides; and that contrary to his training and oath of office had foreclosed an open case between two conflicting groups.

“The IG has admitted that only Yoruba suspects were arrested and that it was deliberate. It is a clear case of prejudice,” he emphasised.

He called for the immediate freeing of the Ife-20, saying, their arrest neither followed due process nor the facts on the ground.

According to the OPC leader, it was clear that such a prejudicial stance by security agents like the IG had given Fulani herdsmen the effrontery to inflict violence and death on communities throughout Nigeria.

Fasehun said: “Is there any wonder why under Idris’s watch, the police has been unable to apprehend, prosecute and check the mayhem inflicted by Fulani herdsmen at Agatu in Benue State, where they have sacked communities and continue to graze their cattle with impunity, in Delta State, in Ekiti State, Ogun State, Nasarawa State, Benue State, in Plateau State and in Southern Kaduna?

“Despite the havoc being unleashed and continued against citizens in Southern Kaduna, the police under Idris has been unable to apprehend and prosecute a single culprit.

“He is a promoter of ethnic cleansing. He is a man on an evil mission.”

The OPC leader pointed out that only in cases where victims put up resistance that the police would swing into action, and arrest people defending their homes and farms against Fulani herdsmen.

“Everywhere communities rise up to resist his Hausa-Fulani agents of death, Idris would quickly rise up to arrest citizens for daring to protect themselves,” Fasehun alleged.

Reeling out a catalogue of prejudicial police intervention, the OPC President recalled that: “It happened in the Mile 2 Lagos crisis in 2016, when police from a part of the country provided backup for Hausa-Fulani arsonists and killers and apprehended citizens protecting their children, businesses and properties from damage and death.

“It happened March 2016 when 76 residents of Ugwuneshi autonomous community in the Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State, were arrested in their quest to rescue their captured women from Fulani herdsmen.”

He accused the Police IG of looking the other way and allowing Fulani herdsmen to roam the country bearing sophisticated firearms like the AK47.

Fasehun pointed out that such prejudicial posturing would mislead the Presidency.

“One must be worried that people like Alhaji Idris influence the quality of counsel that dictates President Buhari’s security policies,” the OPC President said. “Nothing good can come from them; which is why Nigeria finds it difficult to loosen this grip of general insecurity.”

He condemned as unhealthy a situation where security apparatuses were concentrated in the hands of a section of the country, saying, it was contrary to Section 14(3) of the Constitution which dictates Federal Character in appointments: “The composition of the Government of the Federation or any of its agencies and the conduct of its affairs shall be carried out in such a manner as to reflect the federal character of Nigeria and the need to promote national unity, and also to command national loyalty, thereby ensuring that there shall be no predominance of persons from a few State or from a few ethnic or other sectional groups in that Government or in any of its agencies.”

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