Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola has beckoned on the grieving people of Ondo State not to blame Sunday’s attack on any ethnic group in the country.
The former Osun State Governor who is now Nigeria’s Minister of the Interior made this call while visiting Owo, the area the attack took place.
“Our neighbours from other parts of the country with whom we have lived together in peace and harmony are not and cannot be the enemy. We must not be provoked to senselessly attack each other in reaction to the evil plot of some nihilists and criminals bent on plunging the nation into chaos and anarchy,” said Mr Aregbesola in a statement on Monday amid claims that the attackers were Fulani herdsmen.
“It is worrisome that the attack happened in the South-West that has a measure of peace and tranquility. While the motive of the perpetrators is yet to be ascertained, there is no doubt that their cowardly act is intended to cause chaos and instill fear in the people, provoking bloody inter and intra ethnic crises,” stated the interior minister.
“This could only have been intentioned to destabilise the state and plunge the nation into a needless crisis.”
He added, “Their action is capable of widening the cracks in national harmony and peaceful co-existence of Nigerians, stoking ethnic and religious crises and pitting our people against one another on the basis of primordial cleavages.”
