The communal clash between Ilobu and Ifon of Osun State has escalated to neighbouring community, Erin-Osun, leading to the displacement of more residents of the towns.
Governor Ademola Adeleke has, however, imposed a 24-hour curfew on the communities whose indigenes have been unleashing violence on one another as a result of boundary disputes.
Sunday PUNCH gathered that the warring Ilobu and Ifon communities continued the violent attacks on Saturday, and moved to Erin-Osun where houses were reportedly torched.
Our correspondent who visited Okinni, the next community to Ilobu along Osogbo/Ogbomoso Road, observed large number of displaced people, who had set a camp near the road.
Many residents of Ifon and Ilobu had been moving out of the communities since Friday.
However, following spread of the crises to Erin Osun in the early hours of Saturday, more residents fleeing from the mayhem had moved to Gaa in Ido Osun and Okinni, to escape being caught in the crossfire.
Many of the displaced persons, it was also learnt, moved into accommodations provided by their relatives in Osogbo, the state capital, with several others reportedly seeking refuge in mosques and churches.
During the visit, Sunday PUNCH also observed that some were conveying many northerners residing in the troubled communities to Kano State.
One of the passengers, Lawal Yusuf, who was living in Ilobu, told our correspondent that hoodlums attacked the Ilobu market where his stalls was located and destroyed his goods.
“Hoodlums attacked the market where we are selling goods in Ilobu and destroyed many things. We are going back to Kano. We pray that the situation will be brought under control soonest. We hope to come back whenever peace returns here. If not we are not coming back here,” he said.
Counting loses of the community as a result of the unrest, the Ilobu-Asake Development Union, in a statement signed by its President, Olufemi Salako, said beside those killed, over 100,000 persons had been displaced while property destroyed worth over N2bn.
Salako, while calling on the Federal Governments to assist in protecting the community, also sought the assistance of the National Emergency Management Agency for the affected individuals and businesses.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson to Osun Governor, Olawale Rasheed, while commenting on measures to prevent further escalation, said Adeleke had declared 24-hour curfew in the affected communities.
He said, “Governor Ademola Adeleke has stepped up conflict de-escalation moves on Ifon-Ilobu conflict, imposing a 24-hour curfew, mobilising joint security task force and hosting a peace deal between the two warring communities.
“Meanwhile, we seek to bring to the attention of the public that old videos of communal conflicts in some parts of Osun state are being circulated by opposition elements to spread false pictures of insecurity in Osun state.
“While the ongoing conflict is regrettable and while all hands are on deck to stop the violence, we inform the public to take note of the activities of fake news merchants who are digging up old videos to discredit the state government. The videos being circulated of violence in other towns and villages in Osun are fake news and should be disregarded by the members of the public.”