Update On The Violent Clashes in Ile Ife, Leaving 10 Dead

Sad development in Ife! No fewer than 10 persons were killed, 30 others were injured following a clash between some Hausa and Yoruba youths in Ile Ife, Osun State, on Wednesday.

Vehicles were burnt and vandalised by the rampaging youths, while some houses and shops were set ablaze in the clash which forced some persons to flee their areas.

It was learnt at the scene that the fight was caused by a Hausa man, who allegedly slapped a Yoruba woman believed to be a wife of a Yoruba driver on Tuesday.

It was gathered that the Hausa man had littered the surroundings of the woman’s shop with papers and she complained against it, which resulted in an altercation.

The woman’s husband was said to have taken some of his colleagues to the scene of the fight and they reportedly beat up the man and some of his colleagues there.

This was said to have infuriated some Hausa youths, who reportedly mobilised themselves and launched an attack on some Yoruba persons at the Sabo area on Wednesday.

They were said to have injured some traders, which made the traders and some drivers to also mobilise against Hausa people and their attackers.

There was tension in Ile Ife when Punch correspondent visited the town. An Armoured Personnel Carrier and a police van were parked at the Mayfair Roundabout while most commercial buses refused to take commuters into the area.

A bank worker who spoke on the phone, said all banks in the area asked their customers to leave the banking halls, while their gates were shut to prevent hoodlums from using the opportunity of the clash to loot.

Some Yoruba traders, who spoke in the Sabo area, said that Hausa leaders alerted security agencies when the crisis broke out.

They claimed the security personnel sent were of Hausa extraction, alleging that the operatives aided Hausa youths to set ablaze vehicles, shops and other property belonging to Yoruba traders.

Two Hausa men, who identified themselves as Ibrahim and Nuhu, claimed that Yoruba youths looted and burnt shops belonging Hausa traders in Sabo during the crisis.

Ibrahim said, “They stole our goods and burnt our shops. We don’t know what will happen tonight if this can happen in the day.”

Parents were seen rushing to various schools to pick their children, claiming that Hausa youths were attacking pupils in some schools.

Some pupils were taken to the Ooni’s Palace from where their parents went to take them.

Majority of the students taken to the Ooni’s Palace were said to have been rescued from Central Elementary School, Ilare, which is opposite the area where the fight broke out.

A source at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital said that some of the corpses were taken to the hospital’s mortuary and some of the injured persons were treated there.