Goodness Oladele, Reporting
IBADAN – At least three people, including a young boy, have been feared dead and several others wounded following a violent clash between Yoruba and Hausa youths in the Ojoo area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, in an escalation that has reignited tensions over communal violence.
The trouble, which unfolded on Tuesday night and spiralled into a bloody reprisal on Wednesday morning, began over a routine financial transaction that tragically turned fatal.
Stonix News reports that commercial activities along Ojoo area were disrupted for the better part of Wednesday morning and afternoon
According to an eyewitness who spoke exclusively to Stonix News, a commercial tricyclist had gone to a Point of Sale (PoS) operator at Strabag, Ojoo, to collect money.
After handing over the cash to its intended recipient, the POS operator did not receive the credit alert immediately due to network issues.
In a gesture of good faith, the tricyclist offered his bike keys and mobile phone as collateral until the network stabilised.
An argument subsequently ensued, drawing the attention of northern youths who began to gather at the scene.
The situation quickly turned violent when the group set upon the tricyclist, beating him mercilessly before stabbing him to death.
The assailants then dumped his body in a secluded area. It was only when passers-by discovered the victim and rushed him to a nearby hospital that he was pronounced dead on arrival.
The killing ignited fury amongst local youths, who took to the streets on Wednesday morning to protest the murder. The demonstration, however, met with a brutal response.
“Those northern youths brought out guns and began to shoot at sight,” the witness recounted. “About three persons died, and several others were injured. Among the dead is a little boy.”
The shooting unfolded in the presence of the Chairman of Akinyele Local Government Area, Hon Akinwole Akinleye, who immediately ordered operatives of Amotekun and the Nigeria Police Force to intervene and disperse the armed youths.
Stonix News noticed the heavy presence of soldiers deployed from the 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Adekunle Fajuyi Cantonment, Ojoo, with four armoured tanks from the army and one from the Nigeria Police to quell the skirmish.
Besides, a Senior military officer, whose name could not be ascertained as of the time of the violence, was heard ordering his boys to fire at the protesters and disperse journalists rather than the Hausa hoodlums that were shooting sporadically.the
“Disperse them, this is Federal Government road. Nobody has the right to protest or block the highway,” he roared after which both DSS officials and soldiers began to shoot into the air to disperse crowd with pandemonium ensuring.
In response to the crisis, Oyo State Deputy Governor, Chief Bayo Lawal, with the SSG, Professor Musibau Babatunde, visited the scene on Wednesday afternoon to appeal for calm. He stressed that the government views the incident as criminal rather than tribal.
“Criminals are criminals and there’s no tribal correlation to criminality, so we want to ensure that that peace and stability is maintained here in Ojoo and other parts of Oyo State,” Chief Lawal stated.
“This is because Oyo State, as we know it from the beginning, is known for peace, stability, progress and development, and that’s the trajectory we are going irrespective of what is happening now.
“So we have come to appeal to our people, particularly the youths, that they should give peace a chance because government has stepped in. We are profiling, we are investigating, and whoever is found culpable will be brought to face the law whether you’re a Hausa man, Igbo man, Yoruba man or whatever. Because criminality is not exclusive to a particular tribe.”
The Deputy Governor further urged residents not to take the law into their own hands, warning that the presence of crowds would hamper the security forces’ ability to find a solution.
“Let us be well focussed so that the challenges that we have and we are pursuing vigorously will come to fruition. Our people should be patient so that this land will also be addressed as we are addressing the current challenges that we have,” he added. “We will probe, investigate and the perpetrators will be brought to book.”
Echoing similar sentiments, the Chairman of Akinyele Local Government Area, Wole Akinleye, frowned upon any attempt to frame the conflict along ethnic lines.
“The crime was committed by another tribe and there’s every tendency that it would want to be tribalised, but I have spoken to the Hausa and Yoruba leaders and we are together. So this is nothing about ethnicity,” Mr Akinleye said.
“This is purely somebody committing a crime and the person will be apprehended, and the root of the matter will be looked into.”
Security forces have since been deployed to restore normalcy in the Ojoo area, as the government continues its investigation into the double tragedy.
