The Osun State Government has imposed a dusk to dawn curfew in Ifon and Ilobu communities with immediate effect.
Governor Ademola Adeleke has also ordered the deployment of security personnel to the affected communities to forestall further breakdown of law and order and directed the immediate arrest of culprits in the two communities.
The curfew is coming after renewed pockets of violence between the two warring communities last week.
The Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Kolapo Alimi made this known in a statement made available to journalists in Osogbo, the state capital, on Thursday.
The curfew, the statement pointed out, is to forestall further escalation of the crisis and it will hold from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am.
The statement urged stakeholders in the two areas to cooperate with the government to resolve the issues permanently.
Parts of the statement read: “Following the outbreak of another communal clashes between the people of Ifon and Ilobu, the Osun state government has taken the following decisions aimed at ensuring lasting peace in the warring communities.
“That a 7pm to 7am curfew be imposed with immediate effect starting from today, Thursday 16th of Jan 2025 until further notice.
“That a contingent of all security personnel, comprising the Army, Police, and Civil Defence has been, accordingly, deployed to the warring communities to forestall further anarchy.
“That all stakeholders in the areas are advised to cooperate with the State Government to resolve the issues amicably at ensuring lasting peace.
“That an enlarged Committee of Stakeholders which shall consist of the representatives of the Communities, the Service Chiefs, the representatives of the State Council of Obas and other relevant bodies be immediately constituted to resolve the issue permanently.
“Finally, anyone or group of persons, found or caught doing or instigating any further violence, knowingly or unknowingly, in breach of lasting peace would be made to face the full wrath of the law, via necessary prosecution, in line with the dictates of the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
DAILY POST had reported earlier in the week that two persons from Ifon-Orolu town were injured in renewed communal clashes between the Ifon and Ilobu towns in Osun State.
It was gathered that the victims were injured in a shooting incident in the Apiponroro area of Ifon.
Ifon indigenes also alleged that the attack was purportedly carried out by individuals from the neighbouring Ilobu community.
The allegation was also corroborated by the Ifon Progressive Union, an umbrella body for the indigenes of Ifon-Orolu indigenes.
Providing details of the latest incident, the Secretary of the Ifon-Orolu Progressive Union’s Board of Trustees, Jide Akinyooye, disclosed that the violence erupted in the early hours of Tuesday, January 14, 2025.
Ilobu leaders however countered the allegations.
Countering the allegation, the Otun Jagun of Ilobu, Chief Leke Ogunsola, accused gunmen from Ifon of attacking Ilobu residents in the early hours of Tuesday.
