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The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, has justified the arrest of only suspects of Yoruba extraction over the recent clash between Yoruba and Hausa communities in Ile-Ife, Osun State, which resulted in the death of about 46 persons.
He said crime neither had tribe nor identity.
Idris spoke with State House correspondents shortly after briefing President Muhammadu Buhari on the security situation in parts of the country.
After the crisis, the police arrested and paraded 20 Yoruba persons, including a monarch, over the clash while not a single Hausa/Fulani person was detained, even though both groups involved in the clash were said to have had casualties.
The pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere; and the Oodua People’s Congress are among groups and individuals that have been criticising the police over the development.
The OPC had on Thursday, in a statement by its founder, Dr. Frederick Fasehun, given the Federal Government and the police 48 hours to arrest the Hausa/Fulani persons involved in the crisis.
But defending the action of the police, Idris said crime had no tribes.
He said the police would not hesitate to apply the law once criminal cases were established against individuals, irrespective of their tribes.
His words: “You know we are police officers. Crime has no tribe. If you are a criminal, you are a criminal.
“Crime has no face. We don’t look at crime in the identity of where you are coming from.
“As far as you are a criminal and the police find you wanting, we apply the law.”
He said investigation had revealed that the crisis started with a disagreement between two people selling food along the road.
Meanwhile, some Yoruba elders; the OPC; and an Igbo think tank, Aka Ikenga, have criticised Idris’ justification of the arrest, describing it as capable of destabilising the country.
A Yoruba elder statesman, Ayo Adebanjo, expressed disappointment with the IGP’s defence, saying the arrests were biased towards Hausa/Fulani.
He said, “It is unfortunate that the person who calls himself the IGP has no apology for doing injustice. If he agrees that two sections were fighting and two sections suffered casualties, is he saying the indigenes of Ile-Ife killed themselves and destroyed their own properties?