A myriad of bloody clashes between different gangs in recent times has put the peace in the ancient city of Ibadan under severe threat. No fewer than 11 people were reportedly killed in a bloody clash between hoodlums and members of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) last week, after which an on-air personality and another resident of the city were violently killed. There are fears worse days ahead for residents over rumours of reprisal attacks, INNOCENT DURU and SEGUN SHOWUNMI report.

• Residents live in fear of assassins, gangsters, others

• OPC threatens fire, brimstone against hoodlums

• We’re on top of situation — Oyo govt

Following the bloody  clash between members of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and some hoodlums around Inalende, Oopo, and Abebi area of Ibadan last week, residents of the hitherto peaceful communities have expressed  fears  that the crisis may be far from over.

Judging from the modes of operation of the concerned groups, the residents fear that there could be reprisal attacks which could be bloodier than the initial clash. Some residents who spoke with our correspondents said they could no longer sleep with both eyes closed because of the havoc wreaked by hoodlums who appeared to have taken over the affairs of the communities.

Checks in many parts of the city, especially the remote areas, revealed that hoodlums had converted strategic spots into joints where they engage in drug abuse and reckless consumption of alcohol. Many landlords and innocent residents said they dare not challenge them as they are always prepared to crush any opposition to their wayward lifestyles.

A resident of Opo, Mr. Nojeem Ajibade, said the area had been notorious for violent activities, adding that the trouble fomented by hoodlums in the area had become unbearable.

He said: “As we sat in front of our house on (penultimate) Friday, the next thing we saw was a multitude of boys coming from the direction of Oopo/Oniyanrin and carrying various dangerous weapons. We had to run for our own safety.

“We could not go anywhere on Saturday for fear of gunshot from the hoodlums. The fight was still on till yesterday (last Saturday). Nobody could go out. Most of the boys are cult members who do not have any means of livelihood.

“Although the situation is now calm after some steps taken by elders in the community, we still want the government to protect us. Security operatives should be deployed here permanently to forestall further breach of security.”

Oopo, Oje, and adjoining communities are reputed for availability of foodstuffs, fruits and other edibles in large quantities and at cheaper rates too. The people are afraid that they are fast becoming breeding grounds for criminals.

Adewale Oni, a resident of  Ayeye, who  is worried about the crippling fears in the city, said: “The problem is almost an everyday occurrence. Ibadan is no more peaceful. Hoodlums are having a field day and I don’t think the government is capable of dealing with the situation.

“When the hoodlums strike, they attack businesses and innocent people. This has created serious anxiety in the minds of the people.

“In one of their operations in the Academy area in broad daylight about two weeks ago, they stopped a tanker that was conveying petrol and asked the driver for money.  The tanker was coming from Lagos. When the driver could not give them money, they got jerry cans and siphoned his fuel.

“That is the situation we have found ourselves in Ibadan. The hoodlums have free hands.  They do whatever they like in the open. People now go into their houses before nightfall to avoid falling victim. If you attempt to challenge these boys, they will attack you. They have gangs that unleash terror on people.”

A provision seller at Inalende area, who identified herself simply as Asimiyu, said that business activities in the area had been paralysed because the security situation in the area had become worrisome in recent times.

She said: “We fear being attacked by the hoodlums. We couldn’t open our shops because many shops were looted during the clash.

“We heard that the clash was between OPC and hoodlums. The boys came in large numbers attacking themselves with dangerous weapons, including guns, cutlasses, axes and others. Three OPC members were killed during the clash.”

One of the community leaders in Abebi area, who is also the Coordinator of Ta’awunil Muslimeen, Oyo State, Alhaji Abdul Rasheed Raji, said the elders in the area had taken steps after watching the trend of events and it seemed the police could not curtail it.

According to him, a meeting was held with leaders of the hoodlums at Oopo area and the OPC at Inalende separately, during which they both agreed to resolve the matter.

Alhaji Raji said: “We summoned the leaders of the thugs to a meeting on Friday, telling them to go and calm down their boys before the incident would go out of hand, and they agreed.

“We have listed and submitted the names of all the thugs to the chairman of Ibadan North.  Security agencies and stakeholders had a meeting on Wednesday and all the parties involved agreed to resolve the issue amicably.

“This environment is very notorious because it is full of thugs and gangsters. Part of the security measures we put in place was cancellation of the annual street carnival. We have also warned them not to loot any shop whenever there is a fight between them and their colleagues.”

Raji, however, urged the state government to empower some of the jobless touts to keep them busy and away from violence. He also urged the government to do something about smoking and consumption of hard drugs among the youth in the area.

Mrs. Lolade Ajibola, a sister to Idris Ajibola, one of the people killed in the fracas, said her brother was never part of the clash before he was shot dead by OPC members, saying that she wondered why her brother was murdered in that gruesome manner.

She said: “My brother, a 40-year-old motorcycle rider, was neither an OPC member nor a cultist or a thug. I was called on Friday morning and told that he was shot dead on his way home.

“As the violence erupted, he was rushing down home to protect his bike when some OPC men shot him dead on Friday. He was buried that same Friday.  We have not gone to work since then because his death is very painful to us and it came as a big shock.”

A Lagos based journalist, Oladeinde Olawoyin, who grew up in Abebi, said about his recent visit to the area: “On Tuesday, almost two decades after my maternal grandma passed on, I returned to her neck of the woods in Abebi, Ibadan, via Olosa-Oko junction. Nothing significant has changed in terms of development, except that the Marijuana-induced smoke that hovered above its beautiful sky has become thicker.

“With a visit to our beloved St. Patrick and Soosi Eleja came this beautiful nostalgia, blurred only by the surge in the number of thugs springing up in a hitherto innocent neighbourhood I loved so, so much.

“Back in the day, we had marijuana addicts in the ‘hood, but they were few. They even had a hidden base on the narrow path that leads to Oopo-yeosa. But on Tuesday, I noticed that virtually every building had marijuana-wielding young men lurking around its verandah, with criminality written boldly on their faces.”

He further said: “I have bellyached to no end here about the sheer number of ne’er-do-wells bestriding ‘bases’ in cities across the Southwest; folks not fit to be engaged productively except as merchants of violence during electioneering. I am more than sure that the region is sitting on a time bomb. Someday, it will reap what it continues to sow and we will wish we had put out this fire.

“With my Tuesday visit, Abebi became a metaphor for poverty, despair, hopelessness, deprivation and sheer wickedness on the part of the ruling elite — plus its attendant violence and criminality. I realised this place I loved so much as a teenager has lost its innocence and that visit left a bitter-sweet taste in my mouth. It was sad; it still is.”

OPC leader spits fire

The National Publicity Secretary of Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC New Era), Comrade Shina Akinpelu, said that the attack came as a surprise to the group, saying that no area boy could confront OPC if not for sabotage from some of their members.

He said that the investigation he did showed that some former OPC members who are loyalist to a faction of the group connived with area boys and attacked them.

“We were instructed from Lagos to repel the attack if there is assurance that it actually came from hoodlums.

“Though none of New Era OPC members was killed, three OPC members loyal to Gani Adams were confirmed dead during the fracas.

“For us, we believe that OPC is one irrespective of our factions. That is why we are concerned about the incident.

“We have directed all our members to calm down and wait for what the government will do about the incident. We shall take law into our hands if the government fails to do the needful concerning the incident, and this will not be good enough.

“All the Mogajis in the area together with security agencies should call a peaceful security meeting to resolve the matter.

“Government should stop sentiments about security in the state. The governor has never called all of us for any security meeting since he became the governor of the state. We were not carried along in the security of the state.”

Hoodlums turn communities into drug joints, rob residents

Many corners of the ancient city where people previously sat to relax after returning from work, it was learnt, have been hijacked by hoodlums. They are said to have converted the places to spots where they recklessly abuse drugs and carry out all manner of criminal activities.

A resident of Omitowoju, who identified herself as Oye, said females are often the soft targets of the hoodlums.

She said: “After taking Indian hemp and getting high, they will start prowling around, looking for whom to attack.

“I was a victim of their criminal activities recently. I was going to church towards evening when someone suddenly dragged my bag from my neck and all I saw was the handle of the bag dangling round my neck.

“I shouted thief, thief, but nobody even attempted to run after them. They terrorise the whole place and make life unbearable for hapless residents.”

Another resident of Beere said: “It is difficult to bring up children in this environment. The hoodlums’ bad influence is pervading the whole place.

“You can no longer send your daughter out late in the evening without fearing that she could be molested. If you enter Agbeni Market, you will see different corners where they conscript young children into cult groups and criminal gangs.”

The same story was told of Abebi. A resident of the area, who gave his name simply as Saiye, said:  “The community is no longer what it used to be in the past. It has lost its innocence and is now full of cult groups and criminal gangs. All this was never part of the community when we were growing up here. Today, it has become the order of the day. Every decent resident is worried. We now live like fowls that go to bed very early.

Assassins kill OAP, another resident

The anxiety that pervaded the city worsened last weekend with the assassination of a popular Ibadan-based on-air personality (OAP) Titus Badejo a.k.a. Ejanla and another resident in quick succession.

The Nation learnt that Badejo was shot dead by gunmen in Oluyoye area of the Oyo state capital.

Badejo, who worked with Space FM and later Naija FM in Ibadan, died a week after he celebrated his 40th birthday.

He was said to have been murdered outside a club at Oluyole Estate, Ibadan around 11:30pm.

Badejo, who also acted in movies, was said to have been in the company of some of his friends when the incident occurred.

He was gunned down when he was about to leave around 11:30pm, sources told The Nation.

One of them said: “He was leaving with some of his friends when two masked men riding on a motorcycle suddenly stopped, wielding guns and asking all of them to lie down. He was shot repeatedly by the assailant. Only he was shot and they didn’t take anything from him.”

Another yet-to-be identified man was also reportedly shot dead at Water Bus Stop, along University of Ibadan-Ojoo Road on Monday after withdrawing some cash from the Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

Shot in his private part, the victim was rushed by sympathisers to an undisclosed hospital in Ojoo area of Ibadan where he was confirmed dead.

An eyewitness said that the man was shot dead after withdrawing a huge amount of money from a new generation bank at the University of Ibadan.

He said that his killers were suspected to have trailed him to the bus stop where he was shot.

“I saw him when he was taken to the hospital in a Micra car. I just left school when the incident happened. I saw the guy and I am sure he was dead,” the witness said.

We’re on top of situation – Oyo govt

The Commandant of Amotekun in the state, Olayinka Olayanju, declined comment on the crisis that is rocking the city.

He said: “Amotekun is not the lead agency in internal security. It is the police.  Whatever Amotekun is doing is in collaboration with the police. We are trying to help the police who are in a better position to talk on such issues. Ours is just to assist the Police.

“How can I be assisting somebody and be the lead agency that will be talking about it? It is an internal crisis. I advise you to link up with the police. Whatever we have done, we are with them. We are together on ground. They were the ones who invited us to come and support them.

“I am not aware of any arrest.  That is why I said you should talk to the police. They are in a better position to talk about the situation.”

The Chairman of Ibadan North West Local Government, Hon Dayo and Commissioner for Information in the state, Dr Wasiu Olatunbosun, said the government was on top of the situation.

Hon Dayo said: I am trying to maintain law and order and protect the people of the environment.  When I heard that there was a crisis, I moved in immediately.  We are on top of the problem that was caused by the clash between hoodlums and local security operatives.

“When we moved in, we looked at the genesis of the crisis, but we had to first of all curtail the problem to prevent it from spreading to where innocent people were.

“Consultations are still ongoing and we would do everything possible to maintain law and order in the area.”

He noted that It is normal for people to have fears when violence occurs.

“It is normal for people to have fears when violence occurs. There is bound to be panic anywhere a problem comes up.  We have been living up to expectations as far as carrying out our responsibility is concerned.

“I want to assure the residents that the government is doing everything possible to protect them.

“We have engaged everybody that is involved in the whole thing. We have engaged the residents, the landlords and security agencies for proper documentation. We don’t want to base our findings on hearsay alone.

“We have been able to identify what triggered the problem between the two groups. That is why we have been able to tackle it to the barest minimum.

“Through the efforts of the government, the tension is going down day by day.”

On his part, Olatunbosun said the state government had deployed security operatives in the trouble spots. The commissioner said: “We have deployed Operation Burst (security outfit) there. We also have Amotekun and Civil Defence there. They are not only patrolling the place, they are stationed there.

“I was with Operation Burst till the wee hours of Sunday morning. I am likely to meet the leader of the OPC. The fear was because of what happened. We are on top of the situation.  No cause for alarm.”