The bloody clash in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, on Sunday, March 10, 2019, which claimed three lives, was between members of two sworn arch rival cult groups, Eiye and Aye confraternities – is not politically-inclined crisis, the Ogun State Police Command has said.
The Command, through its Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, reacted to a trending news online that ascribed the violent clash to Politics, saying “The crisis was as a result of superiority battle between members of the Eiye and Aye cult groups within Ijebu-Ode and its environ which led to the death of three members of the cult groups, it has nothing to do with political developments in the State.
Meanwhile, a total of 22 suspects, said to be directly linked to the crisis that caused public disturbance in the area, have been arrested and undergoing interrogation.
This was even as the State Commissioner of Police (CP), Ahmed Iliyasu, has ordered that a forensic investigation be conducted on the suspects, to ascertain the level of involvements of each and everyone of them, adding that whoever was indicted to have played any role in the crisis, would be decisively dealt with within the ambit of the extant law, “no matter the status of such a person(s), because the law is no respecter of anybody”.
The CP also warned that any act that is capable of jeopardizing the prevalent existing peace, enjoyed by good people of the State, would be viewed with all seriousness.
According to the PPRO, the arrangement yielded fruit with the arrest of the 22 suspects from whom parcels of weed suspected to be Indian Hemp, expended cartridges and other incriminating items were recovered.
He further said that normalcy has since returned to the town.