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Obasanjo moves to end Ayetoro, Itele 15 years old war

&NewLine;<p>The age-long communal&NewLine;crisis between two communities in Ado-Odo&sol;Ota area of Ogun State may be over&NewLine;for good anytime from now as former President&comma; Chief Olusegun Obasanjo&comma; on&NewLine;August 16&comma; declared that &&num;8220&semi;the war is over for good&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;According to&NewLine;media &nbsp&semi;Aide to former president&comma; Mr&period; Kehinde Akinyemi made this known to OpenLife&NewLine;in Abeokuta &nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;The two&NewLine;communities&comma; Itele and Ayetoro-budo via Itele communities have been at daggers&NewLine;drawn over the years&comma; with attendant lose of lives and properties&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The crisis snowballed&NewLine;into major strife in 2004 and since then&comma; all efforts to bring both sides to a&NewLine;roundtable for successfully truce had been met with brick wall till&NewLine;Friday&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>At the Olusegun&NewLine;Obasanjo Presidential Library &lpar;OOPL&rpar; Abeokuta&comma; the former President told the&NewLine;fueding communities that it was time to bury their hatchet in the interest of&NewLine;the future generations&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The meeting which drew&NewLine;emotions had Obasanjo reechoing the memories of the civil war&comma; saying&comma;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;despite the war&comma; those of us pointing guns at each other at the war&NewLine;front&comma; sat down to reconcile and ended the war&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;That is the&NewLine;beauty of disagreement&period; Coming together again to settle and move on in the&NewLine;interest of peace&comma; progress and future generations&period; It is time to come together&NewLine;in your areas&period; I want to appeal you all to sheath your swords&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I know that&NewLine;Akanle can do it&comma; whatever he says&comma; it is me that is saying it&period; It is only a&NewLine;bastard that do not get angry when provoked and it is only a bastard that will&NewLine;beg and turn recalcitrant&period; I once again appeal that let the war be over&comma;&&num;8221&semi;&NewLine;Obasanjo said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The traditional ruler&NewLine;of Ayetoro&comma; the Onibudo of Ayetoro-budo&comma; Oba Adewunmi Adeniji Odutala in his&NewLine;address assured that peace and progress would return to the town&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>He thanked the former&NewLine;President and Chief Akanle for their efforts to bring both sides together&NewLine;again&comma; despite futile attempts of the past&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Oba Odutala further&NewLine;commended the peace parley despite having no prior briefing before coming&period;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;I have come for another event here in Abeokuta and since you said you&NewLine;wanted to see me sir&comma; I told my entourage that we should come together&period; It is&NewLine;part of the sincere move that you really wanted peace in our domain&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I want to really&NewLine;appreciate you sir and our highly respected Baba &lpar;Obasanjo&rpar;&period; I promise that&NewLine;with this&comma; we have no option than to put the past behind us in the interest of&NewLine;all that you have mentioned&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Speaking on behalf of&NewLine;the Itele community&comma; Alh&period; Kazeem Ajiboye &lpar;a&period;k&period;a Oluomo&rpar; also assured that&comma;&NewLine;&&num;8220&semi;war is over&period; We cannot but thanked our fathers&comma; who have the interest of&NewLine;Itele and Ayetoro at hearts more than us&period; We shall put the past behind&NewLine;us&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he also assured&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Abraham Idowu Akanle&comma;&NewLine;&nbsp&semi;who was joined by the former President&&num;8217&semi;s Chief of Staff&comma; Deacon Victor&NewLine;Durodola at the meeting &lpar;before Obasanjo briefly came&rpar; admonished the two&NewLine;communities to embrace peace and put the past behind them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I was not happy&NewLine;at all with the situation&period; I knew and related very well with your fathers and I&NewLine;am sure that they will not be happy wherever they are now&period; I have said that let&NewLine;Ayetoro be and let Itele be&period; Live together in harmony&period; There is much positive&NewLine;and prosperous future if we all come together&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This my brother&NewLine;has corroborated&period; Your coming together again will bring me joy&period; Next year&comma; I&NewLine;will be 81&period; What again do I need now&comma; &nbsp&semi;but to do things that will make me&NewLine;be happy&period; I beg you my children&comma; let us embrace peace&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Akanle said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The meeting ended with&NewLine;the composition of five representatives each from both camps to work on how&NewLine;compensation and rehabitation would be achieved before the end of August 2019&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The ad-hoc team&comma; which&NewLine;will include security personnel is to submit its report on Thursday for final&NewLine;vetting and ratification by the two communities&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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