NAN-H-40
Crisis
By Dorcas Elusogbon
Ile-Ife (Osun), March 9, 2017 (NAN) Social and economic activities were paralysed in Ile-Ife on Thursday due to the crisis that erupted between Hausa community and Yoruba community in the town on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that banks, public and private schools as well as government offices were under lock and key in the ancient town.
Majority of the civil servants who went to work were sent back home by security personnel as most of the roads leading to their offices were blocked.
NAN also reports that men of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Nigerian Army as well as vigilance groups were seen at strategic locations in the town.
Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC) were also stationed in strategic places to secure lives and property.
Although, the situation remained calm in Sabo and Lagere areas of the town where the crisis erupted, but majority of the residents stayed indoors as many major roads in the town looked deserted.
The Osun Government on Wednesday announced a two-day (Thursday and Friday) curfew in the town from 6p.m. to 7a.m.
The government said it was compelled to impose the curfew following the breach of the peace in the area that led to avoidable destruction of lives and properties.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Nigeria Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Ile-Ife, Mr Isiaka Olatunbosun, has condemned the crisis in the town.
Olatunbosun in a telephone interview with NAN blamed the crisis on impatience on both sides.
He said due to the crisis, all the commercial drivers in the town had been instructed to stay at home.
In a telephone interview with NAN, Osun Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Folashade Odoro, said the police had brought the situation under control.
Odoro said that the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Fimihan Adeoye, had visited Ile-Ife to douse the crisis.
“We have been able to put everything under control and the Commissioner of Police has paid an on-the-spot assessment visit to the scene of the crisis in Ile-Ife.
“We are still in Ile-Ife assessing the situation; we will ascertain the immediate and the remote causes of the crisis,” Odoro said.
EDA/MOL/MO
==========Edited by Mustapha Lamidi/Morayo Omolade