No fewer than five persons have been arrested in Osun State in connection with the continuous Modakeke and Ife crisis.
Tracknews Online understands that the two neighbouring communities have been at loggerheads over boundaries. Recently, five farmers were reportedly gunned down by unknown gunmen while going to their farm in Modekeke town.
The individuals according to reports, were killed very close to their farm in Toro village.
Confirming the killing, a community leader in Modakeke, Femi Eluyinka, said some people from the community and police operatives have evacuated the corpses.
According to him, there is tension in the town over the killing. “Police operatives have arrived. Tension is on the rise. Five of them were indigenes of Modakeke and they were killed this morning along Toro road. They were heading to their farm,” he said.
However, the Osun State Police Command on Wednesday, September 22, paraded five suspects in connection with the recent killing in Modakeke.
The suspects were revealed as; Akingbala Olakunle, Owoniyi Segun, Daramola Muideen, Shina Adeyemi and Awotinde Elijah.
One of the arrested suspects who spoke with journalists at the police command confessed to having killed one person in one of the clashes.
“Some people came to our farm, they have been collecting our farm but we tried to overcome them on that day when the incident occurred,” Shina told newsmen.
Speaking on the incident, the state commissioner for police, Wale Olokode, told journalists that on “11/05/2021, two people were murdered on their way to their farmlands.”
These people, according to the police boss, were from Modakeke indigenes. “This incident generated anger in the minds of Modakeke youths, and some hooligans from Modakeke armed themselves with different weapons to take revenge against Ife indigenes, presumed to be behind the killing.
“The police arrested the situation and obstructed their ugly attempts. Several peace meetings were held, and undertakings made to prevent a repeat occurrence,” Olokode noted.
