Mallam lssah Ahmed is the Asiwaju and head of the Ebira Community in Owo, headquarters of Owo Local Government area of Ondo State.
He spoke with Jimoh Ahmed on the June 5 massacre in Owo, the recent warning of Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu to the Ebiras in the state and measures being taken by the community to flush out bad eggs among them.
Excerpts:
Kindly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Mallam Issah Ahmed and by the grace of God, the Asiwaju of Ebira in Owo. By virtue of my position, I am the head of all Ebira speaking people in Owo and by extension, Owo Local Government area.
Recently, we learnt that some of you, I mean people of Ebira extraction, were arrested in connection with the June 5 attack on Saint Francis Catholic Church, Owo and the killing of innocent worshipers in the church.
This is shameful, we as a people, I mean Ebiras in Owo and Ondo State, are highly ashamed of the arrest of some of our people as the masterminds.
It is simply not in our character, we are known to be peaceful and hardworking. Those people that committed the act are animals intoxicated by whatever belief they had that pushed them to commit the wicked act. They do not represent the act of behavioural life of an ordinary Ebira man. We are extremely not happy about this.
How would you want to convince the people of Owo that those of you living here were not part of the heinous crime?.
Wẹ have been here for years and we have been known to be peaceful and hardworking set of people. We came here to do what we are known to be the best at doing. Farming is part of us and Owo and by extension, Ondo State provided us with the lands for our occupation. How then can we wage war against our landlords. We will never bite the fingers that fed us.
Most of us have been living in Owo for a long time. Some of us were even born here. Some got married to Owo people and we also marry from Owo. So, tell me how we would wake up just one day and say, killing people of Owo is the best for us. We would never think of that talk less of doing that.
For example, I came to Owo as a very young man, when I was not married, and years after, I got married through the income I made here. Let me once again clarify this, we sojourning here were never part of the attackers and we would never take part in any way to hurt the people of Owo.
We regret that some bad eggs from our tribe were arrested in connection with the attack.
What do you think is responsible for the attack?
Well, I cannot hold brief for the attackers. All I know is that in Nigeria of today there are people of bad characters and evil minds. Some are religious fanatics who have been badly indoctrinated, there are also people who chose to tread the part of unwholesome acts to survive. There is no single society today that can purge itself of this. Whatever the attackers had in mind to make them commit that horrendous act is simply barbaric, wicked and pathetic. This is not acceptable. They are simply devils.
They should be made to tell us what pushed them into it and also should be made to pay for their act.
Recently, Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu had a meeting with the leaders of the Ebira Community in the state where he told you to flush out bad ones among you. What are you doing about this?
Thanks so much. Let me first thank Governor Akeredolu for believing in us and embracing us despite the fact that some bad eggs among us wanted to dent our image here. Again, I want to thank the people of Owo for their understanding and their spirit of hospitality.
I want to say that Owo is our second home and we have no other place to go. We cannot allow evil to befall Owo and its people. What happened on June 5 is regrettable and we therefore commiserate with victims and their families. We are equally affected by the dastard act. Some of the victims were our friends, whom we have been living with for years. It is sad, that some of us, of course the bastards, were responsible for this.
We are not at ease with the wicked act. The attackers wanted to dent our image and make a mess of the goodwill we have cultivated with our landlords.
As part of our efforts to flush out the bad ones among us, we have held meetings with unit chairmen of various farm settlements in Owo and across the state to make sure they flush out criminals among them.
Equally, we have asked our people to report strange faces among them to appropriate authorities while we will also not hesitate to deal with any unscrupulous elements among us legally or otherwise.
There are other measures we are taking but would not want to expose these for security reasons.
There has been apprehension among your people of a possible reprisal attack by the people of Owo. Your take?
I have talked to them to go about peacefully and remain calm. The people of Owo are known to be peaceful and accommodating. We have been living among them for long, they know us and they will not do anything to hurt us but we must ensure they are also safe from any attack by the bad ones among us.
It behooves on us to reciprocate their good gesture of accepting us to live among them. We are ready to do our best to live with them peacefully.
