Ile Ife people in Osun state, Thursday, urged law enforcement agents to unravel those behind the killing of two, a mother, her son and some others at Alapata village on Tuesday.
A statement jointly signed by the president, Ife Action Council (IAC), Dr Gbolade Famoriyo, secretary, Prince Lawrence Adewale and the Public Relations Officer (PRO), Chief J.O Olafare said the intervention of the security agents became necessary to avert reprisal attack.
In the statement entitled: “An attempt to conceal the truth about the perpetrators of the devilish act,” the people of Ile Ife tasked the security agents to do the needful by bringing to book the perpetrators of the devilish act.
The statement reads in part: “It is pertinent to let the general public know the true story on what happened at Alapata village on 11th of May, 2021 when a mother and her son were murdered.
Without mincing words, the deceased persons were allegedly murdered by Modakeke gunmen.
“Dragging Ifes to the matter was an attempt to conceal the murderers. The facts as investigated and verified which can be independently confirmed through the law enforcement agents and hospital records by interested parties are as follows: Ife farmers at Alapata village have since been denied access to their farms for many years to date. The village had been occupied by Modakekes till today. The deceased woman was a cocoa merchant and money lender to the Modakeke hoodlums occupying Ife farms at Alapata village.
“That the hoodlum farmers of Modakeke descent were heavily indebted to the deceased woman and were not ready to pay her. The deceased woman and her son went after their debtors to recover their money.
“It was in the course of hot argument that they decided to kill the woman and her son and left them in the pool of their blood.
“When the news filtered to town, the Modakeke youth, without investigation, erroneously believed that it must have been the Ifes. Consequently, they got themselves heavily armed, bombarded Ife villages like Toro, Alapata, Ojuade, Aba Paanu, etc, shooting sporadically, killing and maiming innocent lives.
“In the process, they allegedly murdered, Mr and Mrs Idowu (Ife origin) at Oyere, Mr Sunday (a.k.a Oko Lere Agbe) (Ife origin) at Aba Paanu, Madam “Iya Eve” (An Igbo woman) at Ojuade and a lot. These are the discovered corpses, others are still missing.
“This is besides many others kidnapped by those hoodlums and taken to Modakeke with the aim of killing them. Those who sustained injuries are now in the hospitals and some of them have been reported dead while others are in critical condition.”
