A violent clash has occurred in Ile-Ife, Osun State, between Yoruba indigenes and some Hausa settlers in the Sabo area of the ancient town, resulting in the loss of unspecified number of lives and destruction of property worth hundreds of millions of Naira.
The unrest, which began on Tuesday night, escalated on Wednesday morning as members of both ethnic groups have reportedly been attacking and killing one another in reprisal.
The suspected rioters seemed to have even defied the presence of a combined team of security agencies, including men of the Nigeria Police Force, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Nigerian Army, as they continued to attack their targets in the area.
Our correspondent, who is currently in Ile-Ife, witnessed how a suspect earlier arrested by the police was almost mobbed to death inside a police van where he was being detained, while the armed policemen watched helplessly.
The suspect sustained machete cuts from the mob during the attack. The mob was, however, dispersed by another team of mobile policemen, which arrived at the scene and shot sporadically into the air to scare them away.
Also, some other rioters were seen burning shops and wares, while the Sabo area of the town occupied by members of a particular ethnic stock had become a “war zone.”
The town was gripped by tension due to the pandemonium created by the ethnic violence as Armored Personnel Carriers patrolled the various blackspots to restore normalcy.
Parents and guardians ran helter-skelter to their wards’ schools to withdraw them to safety.
Also, all the banks in the town hurriedly shut their doors to customers for fear of being attacked in the melee.
Unconfirmed reports by some indigenes of the town claimed that some Yoruba indigenes had already been killed by the Hausa settlers.
Meanwhile, there have been conflicting accounts of what led to the violence.
A resident, Olaiya Azeez, told our correspondent that the bloody clash occurred following a disagreement between a Hausa man and a Yoruba woman at the Sabo market on Tuesday night.
According to Azeez, the Hausa man had slapped a Yoruba housewife after a hot altercation, resulting in a free-for-all between the Yoruba indigenes and the Hausa settlers.
Azeez added that the quarrel was settled that night, but to his surprise, a worse violence that had led to killing and destruction of properties, broke out on Wednesday morning.
Another account by an indigene of the town, who did not want his name in print, however, said that the violence occurred as a result of a Hausa man having illicit love affair with a Yoruba house wife in exchange for an undisclosed amount of money.
The source said that a fight ensued between the husband of the woman and the Hausa man, when the Yoruba man got to know about the illicit love affair between his wife and the Hausa settler, resulting in the outbreak of inter-ethnic violence in the town.
Some school children took refuge at the palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, amid a radio broadcast that their parents should visit the palace to retrieve their wards.
All the schools in the town hurriedly closed down as shop owners and road side traders took to their heels to escape being caught up in the violence.
