SAKI RITUALIST: METEORIC RISE OF BASTARD CHILDREN–By~Moshood Yusuff Alade
Yoruba proverbs and idioms are very rich in interpretation. They provide a perfect avenue to express the magnitude of an event and to predict future events.
My leaning towards proverbs today is not unconnected to recent happenings in Ayekale Community which has been perfectly explained and predicted by a popular Yoruba adage or idiom which says “b’ilu ba n toro, Omo ale be o ti dagba ni”. This loosely translates to “a community that is enjoying relative peace is a pointer to the fact that the bastard children in such community are yet to grow up”.
Saki has been enjoying its fair share of relative peace for centuries, which we are always proud of, evidenced by these phrases in our anthem “ilu ti Ogun oko ri” and “Ilu ti abuku o’kan ri”. It means, “a city that has never been subdued by its opponents in war” and “a city that has never experienced embarrassment anywhere in the world”, respectively.
Saki is known to neighboring towns, far and near as a city that love others and highly hospitable to visitors. In fact, visitors enjoy special treatment from Saki people compared to the treatment Saki indigenes usually enjoy from their fellow Saki indigenes.
These beloved characteristics of my beloved town should be largely attributed to our forefathers. Our forefathers were known for being exceedingly hardworking in their various professions ranging from farming to trading. Both the younger and elderly ones work very hard to feed themselves. They were not intimidated and neither were they enticed with what doesn’t belong to them.
We don’t condone oppression, intimidation, immorality, money ritualist, criminality amongst others. We appreciate hardwork and we expose any act of criminality regardless of who is involved. How past perpetrators of these vices were caught in the past is a testament to this assertion.
A scenario of a man famously known as “Odeizi” who was burnt to ashes in Saki about 15 years ago says much about the attitude of Saki towards criminality. It should be on record that I do not support jungle justice though.
The scenario of Odeizi is not even up to Ayekale’s scenario. Odeizi was suspected to be a kidnapper who people believed is a money ritualist. An accusation from people whether it’s right or wrong, owing to the belief that he kidnapped a hawker and dug a hole in his shop led to confrontation between him and the people and that is what led to his death.
The recent happening in Kinikini says much about the behavior of Saki towards criminality. An elderly man accidentally killed a young promising boy and people killed him and destroyed his property in retaliation of his deed. Although, jungle justice is bad but it says much about how our people hate oppression, intimidation, immorality and criminality amongst others.
What happened in Ayekale is truly tragic and heartbreaking. Here’s the gory description of how a stranger was coldly murdered. A lady identified simply as “Mujidah” visited a man at Ayekale on an invitation from Abeokuta. It was rumoured that they met online (Facebook). They roamed the street on top a bike during the day and people have seen them together. However, a vigilant member of the Community who noticed suspicious display of the man chose to monitor his movement. So, when it’s 12:00am, Mujidah and her suspected lover and murderer were seen on a bike towards a particular direction and the man who has once observed the culprits’ unusual display secretly followed them until he couldn’t find their whereabout again. He waited for the return of the man and he saw him stained with blood, he asked for the lady and he responded that he doesn’t know her whereabout before he was caught with the corpse of the deceased. He thereafter offered the man that caught him a sum of N200k and when the man stood his ground, he increased it to N500k but the man still stood his ground to expose him. That’s how he was exposed to the security as a murderer.
The people of Ayekale, Kinikini, Isale Oke, Baabo, Isale-Oro among other communities in Saki are good people, lovely and hardworking people and of course, patriotic people who don’t condone criminality and oppression of any type. Therefore, the culprits are bastard indigenes of Saki. They are the chaff in the grain but we won’t allow them to damage the image of our beloved town. Our forefathers laboured very hard before we could enjoy this relative peace and the loving image of our dear town was a result of hard labour of our ancestors.
Our hospitable and lovely image has attracted thousands of students to The Oke-ogun Polytechnic (TOPS) which the female amongst them have married Saki indigenes while male have established businesses here in Saki. We relate like family, brothers and sisters, children and parents. Many of these students are offered free accommodation and feeding by indigenes.
By the Grace of God, the culprits won’t go unpunished and we shall monitor this case until the deceased gets justice.
May Allah overlook the shortcomings of the deceased, grant her eternal rest, repose her soul and grant her Al Jannah Fridaouz. May Allah grant her family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss. Aameen
Saki and its environs stand for justice and the culprits must be brought to book.
God bless you and me.
