Police have no justification for their action —Ajasin

The founder of a pan-Yoruba organisation, Atayese, Chief Tokunbo Ajasin, bares his mind on the bloody clash in Ile-Ife and the attendant fallouts. KUNLE ODEREMI brings some excerpts:

I want to relate it to what my organisation, Atayese, has always propagated, which is to have a true federal system. When you have  a situation where everything is centralised, this type of crisis will persist; ethnic groups will be fighting each another, because some people will believe that they are being marginalised in one way or other. But in the recent incident in Ile-Ife, I want to look at it as something that developed out of altercations between people within a community and then the disagreements snowballed into what has become a big issue, because a certain category of people took advantage of the animosity among some people within the community.

The police have come under strident criticisms over perceived bias, as all those arrested and paraded as suspects are only indigenes of the town, whereas two parties were involved in the violence?

This idea of parading people in Abuja is wrong and improper. The police have always been guilty of this situation, where they arrest people and decide to consider them criminals before they are even taken to court. Again, there was no reason or justification to take those arrested in Ile-Ife to Abuja. I mean, what point are you trying to prove? Is it to show federal might? Which is why we are saying it would not be necessary if we have true federalism? Such matter should be handled in Osun State, where the incident occurred.

The outcry of prominent individuals and groups is that the action of the police amounted to undue harassment and intimidation of the Yoruba people, since two parties were involved in the violence.

Yes, it is but it is not the first that such act of injustice is being visited on the people. We shout about it only when it becomes big. I remember when the government of former President Olusegun Obasanjo arrested some people in Owo, Ondo State and took them to Abuja. It was a show of federal might. We need to do things right; people have to speak out against impunity. I remember complaining against the act of injustice by the Obasanjo administration then on the issue. It was a case two groups being at each other’s throat and the group that had the upper hand, because of government support, called Abuja which sent in law enforcement agents to arrest some people and took them to Abuja. They were unjustly locked inside Kuje Prison.

It is similar to what is going on now. This trend will continue if we don’t voice out against it and let the government know about it. This is one of the issues the parliament should address. People should make representations to them. We should not wait until it escalates to this level. We need to be more proactive, vocal and call our representatives to account for their stewardship.

What do you have to say concerning allegations of bias and harassment of the Yoruba, by the police for arresting only the indigenes as suspects in the mayhem; that those left untouched are sacred cows?   

I don’t want to believe that some people were not arrested. But be that as it may, I think it will be unfair to arrest only a certain category of people because some Yoruba lost their lives in the crisis. I also want to believe that more arrests are going to be made because a number of the suspects from either side could be now be on the run to escape being apprehended by law enforcement agents.

What will you recommend as measures capable of dousing the palpable tension created by the arrests?

Let’s restructure the country. I have said it over and over again, you don’t bring policemen in Sokoto to come and operate in Ibadan. By the time you restructure, including the policing system, you will be able to achieve proficiency, efficiency and effectiveness. The arrangement will be cheaper, effective and less cumbersome.

What will be your advice to the authorities concerning the Ife crisis?

The Federal Government should set up a panel of inquiry to ascertain what went wrong and how to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.  What happened and how did it happened? The government must address the fundamental issues responsible for such skirmishes. I am aware we have similar inquiries in the past without the government implementing their recommendations. Government must show the political will and capacity to implement the contents of the white paper so that what are witnessing in parts of the country do not become a recurring decimal. We have had enough of bloodletting and animousity among Nigerians. But more importantly, we must bring an end to the culture of impunity. Justice, fairness and equity must prevail at all times.