Residents of Iree, Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State, have fingered one Gbedu, a notorious thug, in the assault on a soldier on Tuesday.

Although the cause of the clash which was captured in a viral video remains unclear, it has left some residents on edge.

Sources told FIJ that the incident happened at Poly Junction in Iree around noon on Tuesday.

In a video seen by FIJ, people stand around watching as some residents suspected to be thugs assault a soldier. An unidentified speaker was heard saying, “Gbedu is the one who held him.”

A source, who prefers to be identified as Ayo, told FIJ that the perpetrators were led by one Ibrahim, a notorious thug known as Gbedu in the area.

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FIJ gathered that this Gbedu has a history of violence, including recently beating up an elderly man at a guest house in a nearby town.

Ayo told FIJ that Gbedu was one of those who led thugs to attack and burn down the palace of the town’s traditional ruler during a kingship crisis in 2022.

“His alias is Gbedu, one of the notorious thugs in the area. No one knows why he and others beat the soldier. I learnt that the guy had beaten up an elderly man at a guest house in Eripa, which is not far from Iree, and the man had been trying to arrest him,” Ayo told FIJ.

“I also learnt when the town had a crisis relating to kingship tussle. He was one of those who led thugs to burn down the palace at the time. He terrorises the area with his gang. But what led to yesterday’s clash is what we don’t know.”

Media reports seen by FIJ revealed that residents of Iree have been on edge since yesterday because of the fear of a reprisal from soldiers.

A student of Iree Polytechnic, who does not want to be named, believes that the incident was not politically motivated as some comments claim.

The student also said that peace had returned to the area. Some students had hesitated to move freely in the area after the incident on Tuesday, he said.

The Iree Polytechnic student also told FIJ that the incident had nothing to do with students, maintaining that it was between indigenes and soldiers.

“It happened on Tuesday around noon. I don’t have the details of what happened, but what we learned is that some people gathered themselves together to beat up soldiers. The cause of the fight is what we don’t know yet,” he said.

On whether the fight could have been politically motivated, the source said, “I see that as a rumour for now. People are saying it, but I see it as a rumour because soldiers are not politicians. Politics is not involved at all. According to what we heard, it was just a misunderstanding.”

“The area is peaceful at the moment. After the clash, people were a little bit scared and were running helter skelter. Yesterday, students were contemplating whether to walk freely. But now, everywhere is peaceful, and people are scared no more.”

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Another resident, who also asked to be anonymous, alleged that the perpetrator was not a local but a former student of the polytechnic who had refused to leave the area.

Though he claimed to have heard that the soldier was beaten from the school campus to Poly Junction, he also was unsure of the cause of the incident.

“It was one of those boys who finished from the school but refused to go home. I heard that they beat him (the soldier) from the school campus to Poly Junction. I don’t know what happened or led to the beating,” he said.

When FIJ contacted Yemisi Opalola, the police public relations officer in the state, she neither confirmed nor debunked claims that Gbedu was one of the attackers. Opalola also told our reporter that some arrests had been made.

“People might be saying Gbedu was one of them. They might be telling you that, but we are still investigating what happened,” she said.

Abatta is a reporter with FIJ, in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe.