Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has warned the Ebira people living in the state to flush out criminals among them, urging them to join hands with the government and security agencies to curb crime.

Akeredolu, who stressed that the Ebira people had lived together with the indigenes of the state for too long, charged them not to deviate from the farming trade.

The governor said this, at the weekend, during a meeting with leaders of the Ebira community in the state at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governor’s Office, Alagbaka, Akure.

Akeredolu, who spoke, while addressing journalists shortly after the closed door meeting, said that the meeting was summoned in the light of the recent development of the June 5 attack in Owo and other kidnapping cases in the state.

He said that leaders of the Ebira community had been urged to rid themselves of criminals and deal with the situation the best way, so as to protect their name and integrity.

Similarly, the Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG), Zone 17, Mr. Yusuf Mohammed Akeera, charged the Ebira community in the state to be of good behaviour and eschew any act of criminality, linking some of them to the massacre at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo.

Akeera, who stated that the suspects arrested so far are believed to be of Ebira extraction, said: “The community leaders pledged their unalloyed loyalty to government and their eagerness to work with security agencies with credible intelligence information henceforth.”

Akeredolu further said: “We summoned this meeting with our brothers. They are not new here but because of the recent developments that have to do with the Owo massacre and kidnappings, we have to call ourselves.

“I can assure you all that we have had very frank discussion with ourselves and the leader of the Ebira in Ondo State spoke on behalf of Ebira people and few other persons.

“It is clear that the message from us to them is well understood and we have assurance from the Ebira who are living in Ondo State that they would corporate with the security agencies and that the incident in Owo was something that they themselves felt very bad about.

“I also have received a letter from Ohinoyi of Ebiraland commiserating again and expressing his own embarrassment on what happened.

“So, we leave here today with the belief that our brothers, the Ebira people that are here, would at the least work to ensure that there is security in Ondo State and in doing that, we have charged them to discus with all their people.

“They have assured us they would do that and we want to call on our people to let us continue with our brotherliness and maintain the good relationship we have had with them in the past.

“We believe it is not those who are residing here that came to perpetrate the crime. That is what they have said and we should give them another chance,” the governor stated.