Six injured as Isese worshippers come under attack in Osun State.

Six people, including a woman, were injured when Isese worshippers were attacked by suspected Muslims at a festival in Ile-Ife, Osun State on January 20, 2025.

Oba Alamo Obatala, a prominent Isese traditional worshipper in the town, told SaharaReporters that the group had announced the festival on the radio for four consecutive days, warning people to stay away from the procession route.

However, despite the warnings, the worshippers were attacked with stones as they passed through the Idio Market and More Area.

He said: “You know the national museum takes custody of all these Orisa (deities) because of stealing. So whenever we want to do our festival, we normally write a letter to the museum to give us the Orisa and we will bring the Orisa to the Obatala temple.

There is a taboo and divine rule prohibiting Ilare indigenous people from seeing the Orisa during the festival.

Pregnant women are also barred from seeing Orisa. And for that reason, we always notify people during the festival to stay away from us.

So on this particular day during the 2022 festival, we were attacked by some Muslims. That was the first attack that was reported and since then the Muslims and their leaders have been threatening us not to do any Isese festival in Ile-Ife and this is not possible.

This year as we moved past Idio Market, one woman started a problem and it was settled immediately. But as we approached More Area, people started throwing stones at us from under the tree and from inside nearby houses.

It also happened when we were coming back at night around 9 pm. That was when the woman was attacked. My car, a Toyota Highlander, was also hit. My windscreen was damaged.

People were wounded a lot but the injury sustained by one elderly woman was the most severe. Six of our members were wounded.”