Posted by Some residents of Ife, an Osun State town, have accused native Modakeke people of rampaging through communities and murdering their inhabitants.
In a statement signed by the group’s secretary, Kolawole Jimoh Oladipo, the chairman of The Ife Intellectuals, Ademuyiwa Adeniran, detailed the ways in which bandits raided Ife towns, massacred indigenous people, looted treasures, and forcibly occupied over one hundred villages.
“The most recent wave of brutal murders, which included an Ife chief and two others, has brought the assaults on the Ife people’s lives and property to an all-time high. Rumor has it that two more individuals have been killed, but no bodies have been located. The crimes are believed to have been carried out by bandits from the Modakeke tribe. There is an immediate need to apprehend the suspected Modakeke troublemakers, who are armed with machetes and are known to be very violent.
“What follows are examples of the heinous crimes committed by these pirates, which the law-abiding and peaceful Ife people have had to put up with up until this point,” the statement stated in part.
Ademuyiwa also claimed that Modakeke had violently seized control of Ife communities and terrorized, injured, and killed their inhabitants.
The most recent onslaught against Ife, he said, included the dismissal of several village chiefs, the killing of Chief Adesoji Adedire of Wanisanni village and two others on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, with two more persons still missing along that axis.
In response to the claims put forth by the Ife Intellectuals, the Modakeke Think Tank (MTT) headed by Kola Olabisi has stated that the assertion is unfounded.
In order to protect the two communities’ long-term peace, Olabisi urged the Inspector-General of Police to order the state’s police commissioner to collaborate with the state government in order to find those responsible for the preventable chaos, apprehend them, and bring them to justice.
“Although we do not rule out the possibility of misunderstandings between certain individuals in Ile-Ife and Modakeke, it is dishonest and dangerous for those affected to turn these offenses into community problems, causing unnecessary tension and potentially disrupting the fragile peace between the two communities,” he stated.
He urged those in both groups who are intent on sowing discord, strife, and crisis to change their attention from causing chaos to pursuing lucrative endeavors that would contribute to the peace in Ifeland.
Olabisi expressed his condolences to the victims of the horrific crimes that have occurred in both communities, but he urged them not to cause unnecessary strife by dividing the region into competing factions. Instead, he said, Ifeland needs permanent peace, which is the key to real progress.