Toro Killings: How We Lost Seven Indigenes, Recovered Five Corpses – Modakeke Group

The flagship body of indigenes of Modakeke town in Osun State, the Modakeke Progressive Union, has narrated how the town lost seven indigenes to the Friday attack.

Speaking on Saturday on the killing of some farmers along Toro Road, Modakeke, on behalf of the community, the MPU spokesperson, Venerable Debo Babalola, explained that five corpses had been recovered while two other corpses of those killed in the attack had not been recovered from the bush.

Babalola, who decried the incessant killings in the area, said an indigene of the town, who was among those attacked, survived the onslaught and managed to get to town though with a gunshot wound.

He said the survivor was responding to treatment at an undisclosed hospital, adding that the identity of those that carried out the attack was known.

“We learnt they (the assailants) asked all of them to lie on the road and shot them. I led the team that went to the scene to evacuate the corpses. When we got to Iraye Junction, I told others that were with me to take the corpses to the mortuary.

“Shortly after, the Commissioner of Police (Wale Olokode), called me and said we should maintain peace. Few minutes later, one Honourable Wale Adebayo called me and said he got a call from the same farm where the initial bodies were evacuated that two more corpses had been discovered.

“I was trying to arrange for a vehicle that would go back there. The anger by those youths that accompanied the corpses to the morgue made them foment trouble and tension was aggravated. We lost seven people, but we could only recover five.

“We can’t go back to the area to evacuate the last two for fear of an attack. We evacuated the initial five corpses on the spot. One other person that was shot escaped with a gunshot injury. He is receiving treatment in a hospital presently.

“For now, everywhere is calm. There is peace in both communities (Ife/Modakeke) presently. But we plead with the government to find lasting solution to this problem. They should let Ife people stay on their farms, while Modakeke indigenes should also stay on their own farms,” Babalola said.