Date: 2021-05-22

The Oodua Progressive Care Initiative (OPCI) has stated that no member of its organisation was involved in the crisis that rocked Ikire town, Osun State, where two people lost their lives and scores sustained various degrees of injuries.

In a statement made available to journalists in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, the Osun State Acting Coordinator of OPCI, Dr. Hammed Daramola Idowu, said: "We want to state it here point blank and set the record straight by saying categorically that those who were referred to as members of OPCI were not, as far as OPCI, Osun State is concerned.

"Though some years back, it was on record that some members of the outlawed group, Oodua People's Congress (OPC) and members of OPCI in Irewole Local Government Area of Osun State had engaged themselves in a supremacy battle during which one Akerele and some members of his group believed to belong to Gani Adams' OPC were arrested and charged to court by the Osun State Police Command.

"In year 2020, one Semiu Agbeyangi, who was then the state Coordinator of OPCI in Osun and his group in Apomu/Ikire were suspended from the organisation for their involvement in series of crises that rocked Ikire/Apomu, especially the crisis between hoodlums in Ikire/Apomu and the Nigerian army.

"When the National body of OPCI found Agbeyangi and his group guilty of the offences and allegations levelled against them, they were summarily expelled from the Oodua Progressive Care Initiative (OPCI), proof that OPCI does not condone violence and indiscipline under any guise."