The age long communal crisis between indigenes of neighbouring Offa in the Offa local government area and Erin Ile, in the Oyun local government area of Kwara State, is on the verge of being reenacted.
Tribune Online gathered that two almost completed buildings have allegedly been destroyed by yet to be identified people.
Indigenes of Offa have accused some members of their neighbouring Erin Ile community of damaging the two buildings belonging to their kinsmen living along Igosun axis of Unity Road, a boundary road constructed by the state government.
Tribune Online also gathered that the two buildings located at Oloruntedo community in Egunkara and Igosun area of Offa were allegedly damaged in the early hours of Wednesday, October 4, 2017.
Speaking with the Tribune Online in Offa, the secretary general of the Offa Descendants Union, home and in the Diaspora, Chief Mrs. Wosilat Macarthy, said that suspected Erin Ile people had meted out series of intimidation and harassment against indigenes of Offa living in the area.
Chief Macarthy, who said that formal complaints had severally been laid by the affected victims, Ibrahim Sefiu and Waidi Kolawole, to the Offa police command, she called on the state police command, on behalf of the towns union, to investigate and punish masterminds of the alleged mischievous act.
“The acts of the people and conduct could, if not checked, degenerate into break down of law and order in the area. Offa people have been known to have handled the dispute between her and Erin Ile in civilised ways and will not do anything to jeopardize the relative peace currently existing between her and his neighbouring villages”, she said.
Also speaking, the vice president of the Erin Ile Progressive Union, Alhaji Raji Oladejo Jimoh, denied involvement of his people in the destruction of the buildings belonging to Offa indigenes.
As far as I know, neither any one from Erin Ile nor anyone known by our people would destroy anybody’s property. Further more, there’s a boundary between Erin Ile and Offa in which the Erin Community knows the limitation as to their land, and they’ve never encroached in to Offa territory as being demarcated by government since 2008. In addition, information received said that Erin Ile community and people destroyed Offa property in which our enquiries within the community revealed that nobody from Erin Ile has gone to Offa territory.
“We’ve been embracing peace all along. If you go to the area, you will see where the area was demarcated and with Offa people building along their own territory. And we have never a time go there to destroy anybody’s property. We know steps to take if our rights are trampled upon or breached. The only solution is to go to court and the case is even already in court”, he said.
Meanwhile, the traditional ruler of Offa, the Olofa of Offa, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi, has appealed to his people to maintain calm and go about their business in lawful manner, adding that steps were being taken to investigate the matter with concerned authorities.
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