By Modupe Gbadeyanka
President Muhammadu Buhari has said his administration will not open its eyes wide open and allow the nation set ablaze by some persons.
In a statement issued by Mr Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Buhari said he will do everything within his powers to protect every citizen of the country.
The President’s statement is coming after reports of ethnic violence in the Shasha area of Ibadan, Oyo State over the weekend.
According to reports, some traders of Yoruba extraction unleashed terror on their Hausa counterparts at the Shasha Market, burning down their wares and stalls.
Governor of Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde, visited the community on Sunday to sue for peace, assuring that efforts would be made to punish those behind the attack.
“Please, I want you to listen to me clearly. You cannot resort to self-help to solve the issue on ground. All of you who are here are doing business with one another in one way or the other.
“The last time I came here, about six weeks ago, some shops belonging to Hausa and Yoruba people got burnt.
“So, you have been living together peacefully and all I am pleading to you is, no matter what is making anyone angry, we will solve it with patience,” the Governor had said when he visited yesterday alongside Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State.
In the statement issued on Sunday by Mr Shehu, the President expressed worry over the “breakout of violence in some parts of the country by some ethnic and sectional groups.”
He “vowed that his government will protect all religious and ethnic groups, whether majority or minority in line with its responsibility under the constitution.”
Mr Buhari also warned that the government will not allow any ethnic or religious group to stoke up hatred and violence against other groups, promising to “act decisively to stop the spread of any such violence.”
In the statement, the President “appealed to religious and traditional leaders as well Governors and other elected leaders across the country to join hands with the federal government to ensure that communities in their domain are not splintered along ethnic and other primordial lines.”
