Oyo State - Justice Must Be Executed For The Bodija Violence

Senator Abiola Ajimobi, the Oyo State Governor, on Friday said all those behind Thursday’s violence at the popular Bodija, Ibadan market, in which some lives were lost and properties destroyed would be brought to book.

Ajimobi, who made this vow while addressing market leaders, members of the executive council, traders, security operatives and traders during an inspection visit to the Bodija market, added that those who burnt and damaged vehicles in a police station located inside the market will be arrested and prosecuted.

Some aggrieved butchers had engaged policemen in a violent clash at the market over an order by the state government that all butchers should relocate to a private abattoir located at Amosun Village.


The governor, who was accompanied to the market by the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Abiodun Odude, vowed that all those behind the violence will be brought to justice.

Speaking on the controversial relocation order, Ajimobi revealed that state government had engaged the butchers and all other relevant stakeholders in all the processes that led to the decision to relocate the abattoirs within the capital city to a new central location at Amosun Village.


The governor, who insisted that all stakeholders supported the decision, expressed shock over the sudden refusal of some of the butchers to comply with an agreement reached after years of engagement.

He said, “We are pleased at the level of compliance with the seal off order of the market. We are shocked that’s some butchers engaged in violent attack on people and even on a police station.

“We will make sure we arrest, prosecute and make them to pay for the damages. We will not tolerate them taking us back to past years of brigandage and violence. We are a peaceful state and we will not condone lawlessness.

“In 1972 when the government of the day directed a relocation of the Gege abattoir to the Bodija market abattoir, some people also resisted it. Now we asked them to go a better facility again, they are resisting. Must they politicise everything?

“For every progressive and positive government policies and decisions, you with always find some disgruntled elements fomenting trouble and playing politics with everything. We will not allow them, we won’t tolerate it. Our government is known for peace and that is what we will uphold.”

June 30, 2018