New Yam Festival Turns Violent In Ondo Community, Police Disperse Celebrants

By Ayodele Oni

Policemen from the Ondo State Police Command were dispatched to stop the Annual New Yam festival in Ibule-Soro in  Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State as two rival groups from the community turned the celebration to violence.

One of the groups is loyal to the traditional ruler of the community, Oba Oluleke ogunlade, while the other one is opposed.

The planned annual festival, which usually heralds the eating of new yam, led to sporadic shootings between pro and anti-monarch of the town, whose selection process was being challenged in the law court.

There had been no love lost between the monarch and some indigenes who claimed that the process that led to his emergence was fraudulent and resolved to challenge his selection in court.

The Olubule, Oba Ogunlade, had fixed the new yam festival on August 25 to coincide with the first anniversary of his coronation, but this did not go down well with some of the indigenes who believed there was a particular date for the celebration, which cannot be changed.

The anti-Onibule families in the town decided to hold their New Yam festival on Friday, the usual date they claimed was the actual date the tradition of the town stipulated.

Sources in the town said there had been palpable tension in the community when both the monarch and families fixed different dates for the New Yam festival in the community.

One of the sources said indigenes of the community had set out early in the morning for the celebration before a detachment of policemen and military personnel arrived and dispersed them.

The source alleged that the security personnel were in the community at the invitation of the monarch, Oba Ogunlade, who did not want the festival to be held.

Reacting to the incident, the spokesperson of the police command, Funmilayo Odunlami-Omosanya, explained that “Ibule people had internal crisis that has been on for a while.

“The command had earlier invited  the warring parties to sheath their sword and embrace peace , while the aggrieved were advised to seek legal redres. Unfortunately, the crisis degenerated yesterday so the Police had to come in to avoid total breakdown of law and order.”