The founding overseer of the Latter Rain Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has condemned what he sees as lopsided arrests by the Nigerian Police after the ethnic clash in Ile-Ife, Osun State between Yoruba and Hausa people.
In a sermon on Sunday at the Latter Rain Assembly, Bakare described the arrest of some Yoruba as suspects in the clash and the justification of the arrest by the police is “an abuse”.
The Nigerian Police had paraded 20 suspects of Yoruba extraction in Abuja last week, accusing them of masterminding the riot in the town on March 8. Forty-six people were reportedly killed.
Police spokesman, Jimoh Moshood, who conducted the parade, failed to give reasons why no Hausa, who were involved in the clashes, were arrested.
However, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, justified the arrests. Yoruba groups and individuals have described the action of the police as one-sided and unacceptable.
Bakare, also the leader of Save Nigeria Group, weighed in and said it was unfair for the police to arrest only Yorubas as suspected masterminds of the mayhem.
He said, “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,” added the cleric, who spoke on ‘The raising of a model leader’.
Bakare also blasted those he described as “sons of disobedience” around President Muhammadu Buhari for leaking a memo, written by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to the President.
He said those around Buhari deliberately leaked the memo to create friction between the President and the governor to fulfil their selfish interests.
Bakare said, “I can never deny that I knew about the memo; I knew about it. I flew from Lagos to meet El-Rufai in Abuja to discuss the contents with President Buhari. There were just three of us at the meeting.
“The memo was an assessment of what was going on; where mistakes had been made and things were not going on well; and what could be done to move the country forward.
“It was not an attack on anybody or on the President but some sons of disobedience around President Buhari leaked the memo to Sahara Reporters to make it look as if it was meant to attack the President for their own selfish interests.
“Can you imagine that the memo was written in September last year and some people think that they could gain from that? Woe betides anyone who thinks he can further his interest by manipulating anything in this era.”
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