Ondo State Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, has directed leaders of Ebira in the state to help security agencies flush out criminals among them.
The governor spoke to the Ebira leaders at a closed door meeting held in his office.
He was said to have summoned the leaders after some suspects arrested in connection to the June 5th terror attack at the St Francis Catholic church, Owo, were found to be Ebiras.
Also, some recently kidnapped victims recounted that they were taken to farmsteads of the Ebiras.
Speaking to journalists after the meeting, Governor Akeredolu said he summoned the Ebira leaders in the light of recent development of the June 5 attack in Owo and other kidnapping cases in the state.
The governor said he told the Ebira Community to rid themselves of criminals and deal with the situation the best way, so as to protect their name and integrity in the state.
“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 discussions with ourselves and the leader of the Ebiras in Ondo State spoke on behalf of the Ebiras and a few other persons.
It is clear that the message from us to them is well understood and we have assurance from the Ebiras 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 the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, that is, the leader of Ebira in the World, commiserating again and expressing his own embarrassment on what happened.
“So, we leave here today with the belief that our brothers, the Ebira 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 discuss with all their people.
“They have assured us they would do that and we want to call on our people that at least, let us continue with our brotherliness and maintain the good relationship we have had with them in the past.
“We believe that it is not those who are residing here that came to perpetrate this crime. That is what they have said and we should give them another chance.”
Ebira leaders present at the meeting were the Odeyani Anabira, Zubair Dan Musa and Alhaji Chief Abdulazeez Majeobaje Akure, State Chairman of Ebira.