Idi-Oro, Mushin area of Lagos State, was yesterday a theatre of war after some irate youth gangs started a fight and rival cult groups engaged in a free-for-all, burning houses and shops amid a looting spree.
Some of the shops and houses destroyed
Idi-Oro, Mushin area of Lagos State, was yesterday a theatre of war after some irate youth gangs started a fight and rival cult groups engaged in a free-for-all, burning houses and shops amid a looting spree.
The Guardian learnt that the cult clash, which broke out at the Alamutu end of Idi-Oro, in the early hours of yesterday, was between the Eiye and Aiye confraternity groups. Dozens of shops were razed while goods belonging to traders were looted freely.
Officers of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) attached to the Lagos State Police Command and the Area commander-in-charge of Area ‘D’ Command, Mushin, Akinbayo Olasoji, arrested some of the hoodlums. As at 2:30p.m., normalcy had returned to the area.
The gangsters openly brandished guns, cutlasses, bottles and other dangerous weapons during the fracas. The gun-wielding hoodlums, according to a police source, invaded Alamutu Street, Idi-Oro from Akala Elegba area, shooting sporadically into the air.
A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the fight for supremacy was between Alamutu Market boys and Idi-Oro transport union boys over revenue collection at the market. “Three persons were feared killed. I can’t say for now, which of the camps lost its members, but expect to hear of reprisal attacks soon as the warring groups begin to count the number of those killed,” he said.
About 30 persons were arrested in connection with the violence. RRS operatives were said to have recovered three bags of Indian hemp and several dangerous weapons at the scene.
Lagos State police spokesman, Olarinde Famous-Cole, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), told newsmen that the arrested hoodlums would be charged to court after discrete investigation.
The state police boss, Fatai Owoseni, who was at the scene of the clash for an on-the-spot assessment of the crisis, vowed to fish out the perpetrators.
Source:Breaking News, Nigeria News and World News – The Guardian Nigeria
