In an orgy of violence, inhabitants of Igangan, a village in Ibarapa Local Government Area of Oyo State, go wild, killing two preachers, one policeman and injuring several others
By Gbenro Adesina
Igangan, a village in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, was, on Thursday 20 March, the theatre of blood-shedding reminiscent of the early days of Christianity when converts were slaughtered in a most bizarre manner to deter others from following in their footsteps. On that day, the villagers pounced on a group of evangelists who visited Igangan on a mission to spread the gospel and offer material support to the impoverished population, killing two of them as well as a policeman who came to their aid.The two evangelists were Tola Roanwo, grand-daughter of the late Pastor Josiah Akindayomi, founder and first General Superintendent of Redeemed Christian Church of God, and Pastor Bamidele Otumagbe. The policeman was identuified as Yakubu Aidoge. Pastor Tola Rosanwo, Tola’s husband and Idowu Michael, another preacher and five policemen, however, escaped death by the whiskers.
A retired civil servant in the village, Moshood Olayemi, held hooligans responsible for the killings. According to him, at about 5pm on the fateful day, the evangelists parked their sports utility vehicle at Oke Ola area of the town and started distributing gift items to the residents as well as selling consumables like milk, sugar, tea, toiletry, noodles and toilet soap at reduced prices.
This gesture, according to Olayemi, angered traders in the village, who thought that the preachers were spoiling business for them. Others believed that the preachers wanted to entice and kidnap their children for ritual with their cheap and free goods. Soon, a mob had gathered, punctured a tyre of the SUV and started throwing stones at the evangelists, who were forced to flee to Ile-Ilero, about 40 kilometres from Igangan.Thinking that they were safe, the preachers stopped and decided to change the punctured tyre. They were however stunned when the Igangan mob came on seven motorbikes, seized and took them back to the palace of Asigangan of Iganganland, Oba Lasisi Adewoye Olawuyi.
The Oba, as Olayemi explained to TheNEWS, appealed to the mob not to take the law into their own hands. But they refused. They started beating the evangelists, who ran for shelter in the personal house of the Oba. The irate villagers got wind of this and invaded the Oba’s house, dragging out two of the preachers and stoning them to death like Stephen in the Bible.
As if possessed by the demon, the mob decided to deal with the Oba for hiding their prey. But the Oba escaped and hid at the police post in the village.
Tension was still mounting in the village when the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Criminal Investigations Department, CID, Iyaganku, Ibadan, led a team of 20 policemen to the community to restore order. In the ensuing confrontation, Olayemi said, over 20 villagers lost their lives; many of them from snake bites and others from hunger and thirst during the 15 days they spent in the bush after running away from the town.
Meanwhile, law and order has been restored in the town, even as residents who beat it have begun returning. Among the 78 people who were arrested over the incident, 71, mostly old women, have been released. According to ASP Bisi Okuwobi, the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, “Most people we released are old people who can never cause any problem. As a matter of fact, if we did not release them, they might die in the cell because they do not have strength again.”
Another cop explained why the police could not arrest the situation on time: “We had to run away for our lives because we did not have what it takes to face those people. That is the reason why they killed one of us, Yakub Aidoge at Igangan High School and injured five policemen who are currently receiving treatment in an undisclosed private hospital. The aggressive mob even opened the cell and freed two.”
In other words, they did not have enough teargas to disperse the mob. The Redeemed Christian Church of God is taking their loss with stoic equanimity. Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the General Overseer, at the 4 April Holy Ghost Service, prayed that God would not allow him to lose any of his children again. Another pastor, Oluwasegun Kolawole said: “The only last respect we can show the late pastors is to help them achieve their dream by going to Igangan and making sure that all the people there become Christians.”
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