FEATURE: In Nigeria’s South-West, traditional worshippers push communities to the edge, threaten freedoms as authorities scramble to defend rights (Part 2)

ABUBAKAR ABDULRASHEED reports on religious intolerance in south-west Nigeria, imposition of unconstitutional curfews that has led to violent clashes, and the call for establishment of a Ministry of Religious Affairs to stem the tide

In Nigeria’s South-West region, which is often considered the safest, religious extremism has wreaked havoc, causing fatalities and stirring up tension among the citizens.

Experts have said that religious violence will continue to pose a threat to the country’s security and peace, if action is not taken.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), Muslim groups have remained the primary instigators of religious conflicts in the South-West States of Nigeria since 1998.

The data added that most of the incidents were observed in Osun and Lagos States, which recorded the loss of lives and destruction of property.

Religious Clashes in South-West Nigeria

More Rituals, More attacks, religious clashes rife in South-West Nigeria

Across all states of the South-West, religious clashes stemming from traditional festivals instigated severe violence that left many injured and dead.

In Lagos, on 23rd August, 2022, a clash at Oko-Oba area between Oro worshippers and Christian faithful of the Truth and The Spirit Prophetic Church, claimed the life an Oro devotee, Akeem Adebisi.

Just like Ilare, public announcement for curfew was made but the church went ahead to hold their night vigil. On learning about the church activity, the Oro worshippers including Adebisi invaded the church around 1:00am midnight and instructed them to leave the church but the christians declined, and that degenerated into a fight that cost Adebisi his life when a coconut was smashed on his head which resulted into continuous bleeding until he was pronounced dead around 4:00am while being taken to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital for treatment after he was rejected by three other hospitals.

On August 3rd, 2021, religious violence broke out between the Oro worshippers and the Muslims in Idiroko area, a border town of Ipokia Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The Oro adherents were said to have imposed a 24-hour daylight curfew to celebrate the Oro festival but attacked Muslim faithful who were observing their evening prayer. Imposition of the curfew wa against a court judgment that nobody should impose daylight curfew anywhere in the LGA.

Bola wasiu, a Muslim faithful was injured on the head by the Oro adherents for breaking the curfew and for coming out during the festival in daylight.

Two years before the 2021 attack, the same mosque and a Christian group were attacked by Oro adherents for defying their self-imposed curfew on the Idiroko community.

On 26th June, 2021, a gruesome attack by traditional masquerade worshipers on Muslim members of Qamarudeen Society of Nigeria, during an Isamic event in front of their mosque at Oluode Aranyin in Ita Olookan area of Oshogbo in Osun State, recorded 14 Muslims including children who sustained gunshot wounds and cutlass-inflicted injuries, the incident also claimed the life of Moshood Salawudeen, one of the association’s leaders.

The violence was alleged to have been led by the custodian of the masquerade, Kayode Esuleke.

Mr Esuleke was arrested and remanded along with three other traditionalists at the Correctional Centre, Ilesa, by the decision of the Osun State High Court, Oshogbo.

The court presided over by Justice Ayo Oyebiyi, on September 22nd, considered granting the defendants bail in the sum of N10million with two sureties in like sum, but adjourned the final hearing to November 2.

Multiple sources claimed that Mr Esuleke had been released.

On 30th May, 2017, in Ekiti State, a violent clash occurred between masquerade worshipers and Muslims in Ikun community in Moba Local Government Area. The masquerade worshipers who were celebrating their Àjàgùnmàlè deity which must be held in silence attacked the Muslims who had converged at Ansar-ud-Deen Central Mosque to observe their prayer, and for allegedly calling for prayers, resulting in varying degrees of injuries and vandalisation.

READ ALSO:FEATURE: In Nigeria’s South-West, traditional worshippers push communities to the edge, threaten freedoms as authorities scramble to defend rights (Part 1)

On 3rd May, 2017 in Oyo State, a religious clash happened between the traditional masquerade followers and Muslims in Kishi town in Oke-Ogun area and left 25 people injured.

On 12th July, 2015, a religious pandemonium ensued when Iwo’s traditionalists attacked three churches in Ikoya in Okitipupa Local Government of Ondo State.

The churches were invaded by the worshipers of a deity called Enimale with machetes alleging that the churches broke the curfew imposed to hold Iwo traditional festival.

The attack on the churches which were holding their conventional Sabbath before the attack left two priests injured with damages recorded during the incidence .

On 26th September, 2014, a similar clash happened when the Muslim group of Kamarudeen Muslim Society attacked a masquerade and its followers in Iwo, Osun State during the annual Egungun (Masquerade) festival.

The man behind the masquerade, Ogundeji, was severely beaten and injured by the Muslim faithful during the attack while his regalia which he said were his lineage inheritance were burnt.

On 10th September, 2023, a Muslim faithful, Yusuf Abdulraheem, an indigene of Iseyin in Oyo State with his family were attacked by Oro worshippers around 7:15pm while driving back to his residence in Isherin.

In an interview with Mr Abdulraheem, he said the Oro curfew was not known to him, but that he bumped into their procession at Ilaro at Orita Jagun where the adherents faced him with machetes and other harmful tools and started stoning his car and broke the glass, while his second wife suffered high blood pressure due to the shock.

“They stood to me and I heard them chanting their Oro, I was confused if I should just reverse or speed forward, but I thought if I go forward they can kill us as that is the act we’ve known them for.

“But God took over my mind that I should reverse but I thank God no car was following from behind, though they also ran after us but I later escaped around the Oland filling station.”

In the same Iseyin, the 2018 religious clash which alleged Oro worshipers to have attacked the Olokooyo Muslims at their mosque cost a 32-year-old Abdulwasiu his hand as identified by Mr Abdulraheem who claimed to be a brother to him.

“His hand didn’t work up till today,” Mr Abdulraheem said of a similar attack in 2018.

More religious clashes across Nigeria’s South-West stemmed from defying unconstitutional curfews that were always imposed by traditional worshippers during the Orò and other traditional festivals.

While lawyers condemned the declaration of a curfew by any individual or group as unconstitutional and unauthorized, they argued that only the president of the nation can declare curfew in some parts or the whole nation and that not even the governor of a state except with a resolution supported by two-third majority of the House of Assembly can request the president to issue a proclamation of a state of emergency in the state.

According to Section 305(3)(4) and (6) of the 1999 constitution, states that the President is the most authority to declare the state of emergency (curfew in this case) and by conditions of public safety as provided in the subsections.

While the Section (4) provides for the state governors to request a proclamation of a state of emergency from the President within the conditions in the subsections (3).

Religious clashes, a recurring decimal from intolerance calling for actions.

In a 2017 report, Nigeria, in a 2015 analysis of 198 countries, was ranked among the four countries with the worst religious violence in the world, stemming from intolerance.

Despite Nigeria’s Constitution providing for religious freedom, religious clashes are common, projecting violence that is gobbling up the peace of the country, while the government is yet to make strict actions to defend and uphold human rights using the constitution.

The clashes, however, have intensified in Nigeria’s South-West, as the violence had spread through all the six states of the geopolitical zone.

The clashes seem to be the price for the non establishment of a ministry that will be charged with religious affairs, as called for by many.

The Emir of Kano, Aminu Bayero, in May, 2023 urged the Nigerian president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to establish the Ministry of Religious Affairs, that would be charged with regulating religious affairs, and promoting interfaith dialogues and peaceful coexistence in the country.

This story was produced with the support of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) ,in partnership with Code for Africa.

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