Injured Muslims The chief Imam of the Idi-Omon mosque, Ilare, Ile-Ife which was attacked by Oro traditional worshippers on Thursday, March 30, Alhaji Abdullateef
Adesiyan has revealed his experience at the scene to a journalist, Sodeeq Atanda who interviewed him after the attack.
According to the revelation by Alhaji Adesiyan, Muslims and Oro worshippers have been living amicably in the area for the past 30 years, and such a chaotic scenario has never been experienced.
Alhaji Adesiyan reiterated that he was a deputy Chief Imam of the attacked mosque for 12 years, and he has been the Chief Imam of the mosque for the past 17 years. He said the Muslims and Oro worshippers have been living a brotherly life until this incident that could hardly be traced to a cause.
Revealing how the trouble started, Alhaji Adesiyan said he arrived at the mosque around 4PM for the evening prayer when he met the Oro worshippers giving commands to the Muslims who were performing ablation in the mosque. He said he "jokingly" told the Oro worshipers to let his people perform the a lotion and pray to their God, then he proceeded to the mosque.
He said he was inside the mosque when he overheard restive voices and when he got outside, he met the muslim already been lined up by the Oro worshippers who were beating the Muslims with canes.
He said before he could challenge them to stop the act, Oro worshippers were already asking for the Imam and he identified himself, after which they attacked him.
"I came out immediately and they demanded to know who the Imam was. I told them I was the one. Before I could say Jack, they hit a man beside me with an iron bar and he fell instantly. I was checking on the man when they descended on me. They also hit me with a multi-edged iron bar; one point forcefully pierced my nose and lips and the other hit me on my forehead. The point that pierced my lips and nose also broke my tooth immediately, causing blood to gush out," Alhaji Adesiyan revealed.
Speaking on how he escaped the maim, Alhaji Adesiyan said "When I saw that my life was really in danger, I ran back to the mosque. They outnumbered us. They chased me into the mosque and I quickly escaped through the roof. It was very painful climbing the high wall. While escaping, I had a change of thought. I said if they killed any of my followers left at the scene, people would question me as their leader. So I returned to the mosque through the same route and saw that the situation had been calmed.
Although no live was lost to the fracas but property belonging to the mosque and the Muslims were charted away, as the Oro worshipers also injured some people.
Among the people that were injured we're Chief Imam of the attacked mosque, members of the mosque and the Chief Imam of Ile-Ife Central Mosque, who came to the scene immediately he was notified, but on arrival the Oro worshippers hit a big iron rod on his head which left him unconscious.
Alhaji Adesiyan said "The Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Eniitan Ogunwusi Ojaja II is aware already, and that his personal assistant called Saarun has come, as well as Alhaji Awojooju, an elderly Muslim in the palace. In addition to that, the police have been informed.
Alhaji Adesiyan said it was hard to get to the root cause of the fracas because the Oro worshippers have acted strange in their processions.
Alhaji Adesiyan stated that "They have always done their processions from time immemorial. Each time they wanted to do that, they would announce specific areas they would pass through and there had never been a problem. However, I think they deliberately resorted to violence on Thursday. They knew this is the Muslim fasting period called Ramadan, yet they fixed their procession for that particular hour, from 2:00 to 7:00pm. What they did was not an oro in the true sense of it. In Yorubaland, everyone knows that oro procession is not done in daylight and women are forbidden from witnessing it. But in this case, all genders were present, passersby, including women and children, were watching them freely. Was that an oro procession?
Category: Forum
Tag: Osun news muslim and pro worshiper fight in ile ife
Written by Ejiro Hassan (ejiro)
Published 4/3/2023 2:50:25 PM