Panic in Imo state: Igbos clash with Hausas, 3 killed

– Three people have been killed following a clash between Igbo and Hausas in Imo state

– The inter-ethnic fracas broke-out after an Hausa man reportedly killed a girl and a woman

– Police say everything has been put under control 

The police command in Imo state has said that three people have been killed following an inter-ethnic flare-up in the state.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), two women and a man were murdered at Akokwa community in Ideato Local Government Area on Friday, August 12.

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DSP Andrew Enwerem, the police spokesman who confirmed the incident in a chat with NAN on Friday in Owerri, said some others sustained injuries.

Enwerem explained that an unidentified man, said to be from the northern part of Nigeria, had run amok and killed a girl and a woman and thereafter killed himself.

He said some aggrieved youths immediately went for reprisal attacks. This he said led to some other persons sustaining various degrees of injuries.

According to Enwerem, the report came to the Imo police headquarters not long after the incident occurred and the commissioner of police deployed anti-riot policemen who stopped the incident from spreading further.

“Reports to police showed that a yet to be identified northerner ran amok at Akokwa community and used weapons to attack and kill a girl and a woman and thereafter killed himself,” he said.

Enwerem said the problem has been brought under control, adding that normalcy has returned to the area.

A witness had told newsmen that the girl killed was hawking snacks when the northerner suddenly chased her till she ran to an elderly woman for protection.

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The witness added that the man attacked both the girl and the woman with shovel resulting to their immediate death.

He said that the killing sparked off reprisal attack by the youths and the killing of the attacker, while some others sustained various degrees of injuries.

Sources say police and other security agencies deployed to the community are still there as at press time to prevent the clash from spreading.

Meanwhile, a social media war is raging between Igbo and Hausa speaking Nigerians over comments credited to Emir Sanusi that Hausa communities in Kano have no grudge against Igbo residents in the state.

Emir Sanusi on Monday, July 11, told the Abia state council of chiefs who paid him a courtesy visit at his palace in Kano that Hausas have for decades been accommodating the Igbos without grudge, animosity and rancour.

The Emir said all the misunderstandings, animosity and rancour between the Hausa and Igbos were the handiwork of ‘rabble-rousers’, whose intention was to cause disaffection in a cosmopolitan city.

However, Sanusi’s narrative about the cordial relationship between Igbos and Housas has generated a backlash from Igbos who accused the Emir of fueling the maltreatment of Igbos in the north.

But Nigerians from the northern part of the country have blasted the Igbos for attacking the emir, leading to a social media war.

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