In response to the suspected arsonists’ invasion of Chief Sunday Igboho’s house in Ibadan, the Oyo State Police Command said it received a report that hoodlums loaded in a bus and taxi came to set ablaze his house.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, CSP Olugbenga Fadeyi, said this in a statement made available to newsmen, yesterday.

Fadeyi also said the police were told that the arsonists shot in the air several times as they put fire to the house located at the Soka area of Ibadan.

He said the police had begun an investigation into the incident.

The house was said to have been burnt around 3am, yesterday, after the power supply to the area was cut off.

The police statement read, “At about 0620 hrs of today (26/01/2021), a report was received at the Santo Police Station that some unidentified hoodlums came to Sunday Igboho’s house at Soka area of Ibadan in a Hummer bus and Micra (taxi), firing sporadically, and set the house ablaze.

“The mini sitting room got burnt in the process while the value of other properties is yet to be estimated.

“Immediately the DPO Sanyo got a wind of the incident, he contacted fire service while he also went to the scene for on the spot assessment.

“The fire was eventually put out. An investigation has commenced into the incident while the Police are on the trail of the hoodlums”

Meanwhile, in the wake of simmering ethnic tensions in Ondo and parts of Oyo State, the Federal Government has urged restraint on the part of disputants, vowing to effectively deal with those who breach the peace.

The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, in a statement issued, yesterday, in Abuja, and signed by himself, said government was having a holistic look at the challenges and will stop at nothing to bring lasting peace, security and amity to all communities.

In the statement titled, “A time to put Unity and Peace above all”, Aregbesola observed that, “the regrettable incidences of heightening ethnic and religious tensions in our country are, in part, outcomes of political and economic strains that have persistently defined our land and continue to exacerbate security challenges, making the task of development more traumatic.”

According to him, “Government is keenly aware and genuinely concerned about these complications that, sadly, have been sharpened by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic through the growth of anxieties about issues, lives, and livelihoods in our communities.”

He emphasized that government will not tolerate any act or behaviour capable of jeopardising law and order as well as security of lives and property in any part of the country.

“There will be no tolerance for any act or behaviour capable of jeopardising law and order and security of lives and property in any part of Nigeria.

“Therefore, as the government is fashioning long term answers to address these problems, it urges citizens to appreciate that self-help and lawlessness cannot offer a path to a sustainable solution. It can only lead to greater pain as well as costly human and material losses and disruption of the already difficult task of devising responses that will produce tangible peace and development in the country”, he stated.

Aregbesola assured that the Federal Government was moving in quickly to bring state, community, security, traditional institutions, religious organizations, and youth groups into a purposeful dialogue that will bring effective resolutions to the problem within constitutional and legal frameworks.

“Let us all try to be our brother’s keeper and work towards building a peaceful community that works for all, irrespective of ethnicity, religion, and other forms of differences”, Aregbesola stated.