No fewer than hundred people were feared killed and
several others injured in the violent clash that occurred on Friday in the
ancient city of Wukari in Taraba State between the aborigines and Hausa youths
in the community.
Also, over hundred houses were set
ablaze by the warring groups who engaged each other with guns and other dangerous
weapons while forty people have been arrested by the state Police Command in
connection with the mayhem.
And in a bid to bring the situation
under control, the state government has declared a twenty four hour curfew even
as residents of the town have fled to nearby villages in a frantic effort to
avoid being caught in the cross fire.
The crisis was ignited by an attempt
by some youths at Karofi Street in the town to prevent some traditionalists who
were on procession as part of burial rites for a deceased traditional Chief,
Abe Ashumate who was the Abon Ziken of Wukari.
An indigene of the town who spoke in
a telephone interview from his hide out said they decided to flee the town and
take refuge in a nearby bush due to the indiscriminate killing of people by the
warring groups.
“Many people have fled the town and
are taking refuge in bushes and villages around Wukari. People were being
killed indiscriminately and I can tell you that I witness over fifty people
being given mass burial. Though I cannot tell you the exact number of people
killed, but it would be up to a hundred,” he said.
But speaking in a telephone interview
yesterday, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Joseph Kwali
said thirty nine (39) people were killed while thirty people were confirmed by
the state Police Command to be injured in the crisis that has turned the
erstwhile busy and lively community to a ghost town just as he declared that
normalcy has returned to the troubled town.
According to him “I can confirm to
you that thirty-nine people were killed in the crises while thirty people are
injured while thirty-two houses were razed down but the police command has
arrested forty people in connection with the crisis”.
Insisting that normalcy would soon
return to the town, the PPRO stated “a twenty-four hour curfew have been
imposed on the town and the residents have been restricted to their houses and
as I am talking to you now, the situation has been brought under control and
normalcy would soon return to the town”
Tags
Politics