A media aide to Kano Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has bashed President Muhammadu Buhari for his alleged mismanagement of ethnic clashes in Oyo State.
Clashes which followed an argument between traders from the Yoruba and Hausa ethnic groups broke out on Friday and Saturday at Shasha market in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, resulting in the death of at least 11 people.
Salihu Yakasai, Ganduje’s aide tweeting on Monday “@MBuhari noted your 2 tweets aren’t enough to end this barbarism.’’
Governor Ganduje had suspended Yakasai for criticising President Buhari over the nationwide #ENDSARS campaign on Sunday, October 11, 2020, for describing the Buhari-led administration as a government with zero empathy for the people.
Meanwhile, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, Monday, tweeted, ”Shasha market has been a melting pot for traders bringing foodstuff from the North to the Southwest for decades.
Traders from the North have done business with their brothers from the Southwest and they have lived in peace and even inter-married. Shasha represents unity.”
According to Osinbajo, ”So when a disagreement arises between individuals or a criminal act is committed by one against the other we must ensure that we see it for what it is, a criminal act, which must be punished according to law. Not an ethnic conflict.
”Every Nigerian has a constitutional right to live, work and enjoy their lives in safety and peace under the law,’’ he added.
Already, Nigeria’s President had appealed for calm on Sunday, February 14 following reports of inter-communal violence between ethnic groups at a market in the southwestern state of Oyo.
President Muhammadu Buhari appealed on Twitter to religious and traditional leaders, as well as elected leaders, “to join hands with the federal government to ensure that communities in their domain are not splintered along ethnic and other primordial lines”.
“We will not allow any ethnic or religious groups to stoke up hatred and violence against other groups,” the President wrote.
