Seven persons, including a soldier, reportedly lost their lives during a clash between rival youth groups in Obayantor community, Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Area of Edo State.
The aggrieved youths were said to have been embroiled in leadership tussle.
It was gathered that a faction of the youth leadership in the community led security personnel to search for some illegally acquired firearms believed to have been brought by a rival group.
In the fracas that ensued, a soldier was reportedly killed. No fewer than six others, mostly youths were said to have been killed during reprisal.
A son-in-law to an 80-year-old woman, who does not want his name mentioned, said that the incident happened on Saturday night and that his mother-in-law had to trek through the bush for hours before being rescued and brought to him in Benin City.
He said, “As I am talking to you, she is with me in Benin City and we have to arrange for somebody to run errands for her. She trekked in the bush to nowhere. She said they didn’t even know what happened but that on Saturday night, they started hearing gunshots everywhere in the community and they started running into the bush.”
The Police Public Relations Officer, Bello Kontongs, was quoted as saying, “It was a military operation, so I don’t have any information on that but once I have, I will let you know.”
However, the Nigerian Army, 4 Brigade, Benin City, reportedly said that the brigade did not carry out a reprisal attack in the community, but was in the community based on intelligence from the Department of State Service.
The brigade’s Public Relations Officer, Capt. Yemi Sokoya, said that soldiers were not in the community because of reprisal, but the “brigade got a report from the DSS about hoodlums disturbing the community and weapons being stockpiled. We found out that it was true because, as soon as we got there, some of the hoodlums engaged the troops.
“However, even if there was a communal issue before now, with what is happening in the country today, if you are a commander and you are told people are stockpiling weapons somewhere, you will go there and ensure that the weapons were seized, and those involved arrested. I think that is the right thing to do and that was exactly what the commander did.
“The issue of communal crisis is not part of why we went there. It was basically on the report that hoodlums in that community were stockpiling weapons and terrorising the community.”
He said that weapons, including two AK-47 rifles, three English Pump Action guns, one double barrel, 32 cartridges, five mobile phones and an ID card belonging to the state vigilante were recovered.
