A Survey of violence-related deaths in Egbedore and Ifedayo LGAs of Osun State (2006-2014)

Résumé 0

Egbedore and Ifedayo LGAs are rural communities that do not attract media attention, yet they have their share of violence leading to loss of lives. This paper focuses on these deaths, their causes, and the reasons such incidents were not reported by the national press. A non-probability sampling technique was adopted for this study, using both incidental and purposive sampling, to source information from people who were accessible and based on the researcher’s choice. Virtually all the respondents (100% in Egbedore and 88.9% in Ifedayo) considered the study areas non-violent. However, nine and 13 violent deaths were recorded in Egbedore and Ifedayo LGAs, respectively, during the period under review. These incidents resulted mainly from communal clashes, land disputes, and road accidents due to bad roads. Interviews conducted with journalists covering the State of Osun revealed that almost all media houses represented in the state had one reporter to cover 30 LGAs and one area council. A number of reasons were advanced for not covering the councils adequately: there were claims of poor and irregular salaries ‑ and hence an inability to make frequent visits to remote parts of the state ‑ lack of community newspapers, bad roads and poor transportation services, and an uncooperative attitude from security operatives in regard to releasing information. In addition, journalists pointed to different media house styles, which see some stories as not weighty enough to make national news.