Date: 2016-03-30

Anxiety rose again in some parts of Ilorin yesterday when suspected hoodlums engaged in a violent clash. Motorists and pedestrians plying the road leading to Oja-Tuntun from Agbo-Oba area withdrew from the area.

Some of them hurriedly parked and abandoned their cars following the report that the street urchins had renewed their feud. Shop owners immediately closed for business and deserted the area.

This came as some gunmen, whose number could not be ascertained at press time, killed one man in Oja-Tuntun Market on Monday. The victim was allegedly shot severally by the gun wielding assailants before he was stabbed, leaving him in a pool of blood.

The hoodlums, said to be of a rival cult group, chased the victim from Idi-Ogede, some metres away from Oja-Tuntutn and was later ambushed by the armed men. A source told The Herald in Ilorin that the market was thrown into confusion as shop owners and passersby fled the trouble scene.

In the ensuing melee, some armed men protesting the killing of the victim were said to have waylaid the assailants, resulting in the destruction of property worth millions of naira. It was learnt that the fracas spilled to Agbo-Oba area where the attackers allegedly used as escape route.

Several cars parked by the roadside on the road leading to Oja-Tuntun from Agbo-Oba had their wind screens shattered. Shop owners were also not spared as some hoodlums took advantage of the unrest to destroy and loot their wares.

One woman, who narrated her ordeal in a chat yesterday said the hoodlums destroyed her goods and took away some. "Government needs to do something about frequent clashes in this area. Some of the hoodlums used to hijack the street brawl to loot and destroy.

"My experience in their hands was terrible yesterday. They came in large number fully armed and started destroying my wares. Some of them also took away my goods. We don't know the reason why they always make us victims of their clashes". When The Herald visited the scene yesterday, damaged wind screens and side door glasses were seen littering the ground.

A visit to the end of the road around Oja-Tuntun showed that armed policemen had been dispatched to the trouble spot. Our correspondent reports that the policemen mounted surveillance to avert further break down of law and order.

The spokesman of the state police command, Okasanmi Ajayi, did not pick calls when The Herald contacted him on his mobile telephone to confirm the incident. A text message sent to him on the clash was also not replied at press time.