Confusion in Asaba as Igbo, Hausa clash

A violent clash between Hausa traders and some Igbo youths left many wounded in Asaba, Delta State on Thursday.

Over 200 northerners, most of them soaked with blood, have taken refuge at the B Division of the Delta State Police Command, Asaba, as a result of the violence.

Though, there were various versions of the cause of the violence, our correspondent learnt that some Igbo were provoked by the burial of the easterners who lost their lives in the North in Onitsha, about 15 minutes from Asaba.

The deceased were suspected to have been killed by Boko Haram.

The Igbo youths were said to have been angered by the thinking that while they were still mourning and burying their dead, the northerners in the area were going about their trading.

Some of the injured were receiving treatment at the Police Clinic and state hospital, Okwe, close to the division at the time of filing this report.

The popular Abraka Market operated by the northerners was deserted as hoodlums hijacked the situation to burgle shops in the market.

More than 10 truckloads of riot policemen were stationed at the Onitsha Bridge Head to quell the violence which took residents of the state capital by surprise.

A victim, who identified himself as Ibrahim, who had several machete cuts, said he was able to escape from Onitsha but was stopped by some hoodlums in Asaba who injured him and escaped with his motorcycle and mobile phones.

Another unconscious victim, a yam seller who had his face bloodied, recounted how he was hit on the head by his assailants while he was trying to escape.

“If not for the sake of the policemen who came to my rescue they would have killed me by now. We were caught unawares and there was no way we could have fought back as they far outnumbered us,” he said.

The Divisional Police Officer, Usman Yusuf, said the violence emanated from Onitsha, adding that the division was only trying to save the lives and property of the fleeing northerners.

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Onitsha Police Killing: Over 200 northerners flee to Asaba

COMMOTION broke out,Thursday, as hundreds of Hausa indigenes resident in Onitsha fled to Asaba for refuge as a result of alleged attack on them by members of Movement for Actualization of Birafra (MASSOB ).

As the news filtered in, there was a lot of panic as some of their fellow Hausa men trading at the popular Abraka market on the Asaba-Benin highway ran helter- skelter.

As at the time of this report, over 200 of the run-away Hausas from Onitsha were taking refuge at the Police ‘B’ Divisional headquarters in Asaba located on the Asaba-Benin highway.

A similar incident occurred sometime in February 2006 following reprisal attacks on Hausa men at Onitsha, during the massacre of Igbos in Maiduguri and other parts of the North.

Thursday’s reprisal attack at Onitsah caused a lot of panic especially among the Hausa settlers in Asaba as some of them who had earlier fled home over the threat of reprisal from Boko Haram unslaught but returned back about a week ago became restive.

As a result of panic movement on the Bridge, there was gridlock for some hours. But as at the time of this report, situation has calmed down.

Armed soldiers and policemen were seen patrolling that stretch of the highway from Asaba to Onitsha end of the Niger bridge.

Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Charles Muka told this reporter that “it was a panic movement here (Asaba) as a result of the incident in Onitsha. There was no incident here in Asaba, please note, I repeat no incident here in Asaba. The situation is calm”, he stated.

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Protest rocks Onitsha as policeman killed driver and injured many over N50

protest sparked off in Onitsha, the commercial city of Anambra State Thursday, over the killing of a commercial bus driver simply identified as Edwin by a trigger happy policeman for failing to part with N50 tip.

According to the conductor of the bus, Samuel Ekwueme who was crying uncontrollably, the police, at Anambra State Broadcasting Service (ABS) Awka Road Onitsha junction check point, had stopped the Coaster bus driver with registration number AA 763 AHB and asked for N50 tip, but the driver gave him the normal N20.

The policeman said to be a Hausa man refused and insisted on collecting N50, but was told by the driver that they just came out and that they should allow them to go and come back.

The conductor said: “The policemen insisted that we must give them N50 before we move. The driver, after pleading with the unyielding policemen, drove off and one of them entered a commercial motorcycle and accosted us at Anionwu street by New Market Road Onitsha where he shot the driver through the bus window and ordered the commercial motorcyclist carrying him to move for him to escape.”

The killing of the driver exploded the bottled up anger of residents of Onitsha and the fragile peace in the state that have lost over 30 people to the bombing and shooting of the Boko Haram as residents took to the streets in protest of the killing of the bus driver said to be member of the Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB).

It was gathered that four passenger in the bus sustained bullet wounds while others in an attempt to escape sustained serious injuries when the bus became uncontrollable following the shooting of the driver by the trigger happy cop.

The situation however took a dangerous turn when angry mob comprising of drivers and commercial motorcyclist popularly known as ‘okada riders’ went on rampage with the corpse of the driver, for reprisal attack on Hausas people in Onitsha.

The bus was said to be fully loaded with passengers who took off from Nkpor junction and was heading to the Ose Okwodu and Onitsha Main Market, when the incident happened.

One of the passengers who gave her name as Ifeoma Obi told Vanguard that “the deceased did not do anything that warranted his killing, adding it was just sheer wickedness on the side of the policeman who because of just N50 wasted this young man’s life”

She also said that when the policeman first demobilized the bus by shooting at the tires of the vehicle and it could not move again, a situation she said helped the killer cop to shoot at the deceased from the window on closed range after shattering the glass of the vehicle.

The killing took an ethnic sentiment as Coaster drivers and angry mob in Onitsha went on rampage demanding the killing of Hausa people on the ground that the policeman who shot the deceased was a Hausa man.

The situation also escalated when angry mob descended on the police team earlier sent by the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Muhtari Ibrahim to come and appeal to the rampaging crowd as the team were almost lynched but for the intervention of MASSOB Director of Information, Mr Uchenna Madu who pleaded with the aggrieved protesters that their leader Chief Ralph Uwazurike is against any reprisal attack.

The Onitsha Ploice acting Area Commander, Mr Roland Omatoje and the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Central Police Station, Onitsha Mr. Abdul Yusuf escaped death by the whiskers when the angry mob descended on them when they led their men to the scene of the incident .

...the coaster bus where Edwin was shot

Reacting to the development, MASSOB leader, Chief Ralph Uwazurike advised his members not to touch any Hausa man but should dismantle every police check point within the zone with immediate effect.

Uwazurike who spoke through his director of information, Mr Uchenna Madu said dismantling of all police check point has became imperative at a time when the security of Ndigbo was no longer safe even in their land.

He however, urged MASSOB members to leave Hausa people alone and concentrate on dismantling all police check points within the zone”.

When contacted, the Anambra State Police Commissioner, Mr. Muhtari Ibrahim said the killer cop had been arrested and would soon undergo orderly room trail and prosecution. He called on the rampaging mob to calm down as efforts to settle the matter had commenced.

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