Clash in Ile-Ife: Pastor Bakare condemns one-sided arrests

Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly on Sunday condemned the mode of arrests in the aftermath of the clash between the indigenes and Hausa community in the ancient town.

Speaking in Lagos during his sermon at the church, Bakare described as “an abuse” the arrest of some Yoruba as suspects in the clash and the justification of the arrest by the police.

The police had paraded 20 suspects of Yoruba extraction in Abuja last week, alleging that they masterminded the riot in the town on March 8, where 46 persons were reportedly killed.

Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, who conducted the parade, did not, however, give reasons why no Hausa, who were involved in the clashes, were arrested as suspects.

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, justified the arrests, which some Yoruba groups and individuals had described as one-sided and unacceptable.

But Bakare, stressing the importance of justice and equity in nation-building, wondered what could have informed the arrest of members of a party in the crisis, leaving out the culprits on the other side.

“If there is a fight between two people, you don’t arrest one person and leave the other. What you do is to arrest the two and let the law takes its course. To arrest one party and leave the other and even go ahead to justify it is an abuse.

“No one should be allowed to promote ethnic agenda in the country. That is not the way of righteousness,” Pastor Bakara warns.