Ilorin fracas: Violence continues as thugs hunt for rival groups

From Olanrewaju Lawal, Ilorin

 Violence between suspected political thugs of Alore and Ode-Alahuasa continued yesterday as sporadically shooting among the hoodlums and law-enforcement agents have forced people to flee the areas.

The crisis, which started on Friday with five deaths, increased yesterday across the area.

Our correspondent learnt that the crisis claimed three lives between Friday and Monday morning, while twowere also fear dead on Monday afternoon.

An un- identified commercial motorcyclist was allegedly shot dead by mobile police men at Oloje area while another person simply identified as Dauda was reportedly shot dead in cross fire by the rampaging hoodlums.

A reliable source at the scene of the crisis told our correspondent that apart from anti-riot policemen drafted to the area, soldiers from Sobi Barrack and officers from Nigerian Air force have joined other security agencies to fight the political thugs that are disturbing the peace of the area.

At about 11:55 a.m yesterday, heavy gunshots continued unabated in the affected areas, while all commercial activities were totally deserted.

The Kwara state Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO), ASP Ajayi Okasanmi disclosed that 12 suspects have been arrested in connection with the incident, adding that investigation was still on to unravel the cause of the fracas.

Meanwhile, the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC), Kwara state has absolved its members from the violence.

The Congress, in a statement issued by its state coordinator, Comrade Maruf Abdulsalam denied all the PDP claims that its members assisted APC thugs to attack new PDP members.

The PDP had claimed that the violence was perpetrated by APC thugs against the former APC members who defected to the PDP.

They alleged that political officer holders in the area where the defection ceremony was held, deployed OPC members to reinforced the APC thugs during the violence.

But, the OPC said “We hereby state loudly and clearly, that OPC is not in any way involved in the said political crisis in Omoda/Alore area of Ilorin. We are not political thugs and never shall we submit ourselves to any political party to be used as tools for crisis. It is very clear that OPC is a socio-cultural organisation that promotes Yoruba culture across the globe.

“It is unfortunate that the PDP failed to mention the name of the political office holder who allegedly funded OPC for the crisis and also failed to verify the genesis of the problem within its party and

APC before running to the press,” the congress stated.

The OPC claimed that it recently raised an alarm that some hoodlums in Ilorin West Local Government Area were impersonating as members of the congress.

The congress also called on the state government to investigate the Alore/Omoda violence and bring the perpetrators to book.