Ethnic-Tension Between Yoruba & Hausa/Fulani In Lagos Metropolis After Violence Reports Say, Written By Ben Ezeamalu & Patience Ogbo

Ethnic-Tension Between Yoruba & Hausa/Fulani In Lagos Metropolis After Violence Reports Say Written By Ben Ezeamalu & Patience Ogbo
Relative peace appears to have returned to the Marine Beach area of Apapa, Lagos, after Wednesday’s ethnic lash between some Hausa and Yoruba youth.
About three police vans belonging to the Rapid Response Squad, Lagos Police Command, were parked, Thursday, under the bridge linking Ijora to Marine Beach, the site of the clash; while armed police officers patrolled the area.
A police officer in one of the patrol vans declined to make any comment, saying the area commander was the only one to talk about the incident.
“We are here to apprehend any trouble maker and make sure nothing happens again,” said the police officer.
Pieces of broken bottles and smashed vehicle windshields littered the ground; the reminder of the fight which left at least three people, including a call centre operator, popularly known as Alfa, dead; and several others injured.
According to a source who did not want to be named, the police arrived yesterday after the clash and had been patrolling the area since then.
Ethnic tension
The source said that the fight started after a collision between two commercial motorcyclists, each belonging to the different ethnic groups.
“The Yoruba rider beat up the Hausa one, who went and mobilised his people. They came back with broken bottles, machetes, and daggers,” said the source.
The ensuing fight immediately degenerated into an ethnic one, with the youth who were present identifying with their tribe and joining in the fight.
Other reports traced the origin of the fight to an argument between two men at an Indian hemp spot in the area.
A resident of Ijora Oloye, who identified himself as Kazeem, said the peace “foisted” in the area by the presence of police officers will not last.
“Do you think the Yorubas will just fold their hands? Now everything looks normal, but wait until the police leaves, you will see they will revenge,” said Mr. Kazeem.
One of many clashes
It was gathered that the incident was the third clash in recent times between the youth of the two ethnic groups in the area, which has a high population of Hausa youth working in the various oil depots.
Musa Ibrahim, a trader under the bridge at Ijora, said he lost close to a million naira during the fracas.
“I have been doing business with these Yoruba people and I have never fought with any one of them, even when Hausa people want to attack Yoruba people, I used to stop them; but look at what they have done to me. I am now left with nothing,” Mr. Ibrahim said.
Touts are to blame
Traders in the area blamed the clash on the touts who live and work under the bridge.
“There are nothing like Hausa and Yoruba people fighting. The fight was between touts who just want to cause trouble in the area. Thank God the police came on time, the clash would have been worst; even school children were rescued by the police, because some people wanted to kill them,” said a trader who identified himself as Mr. Eze.
“Government must send all these touts and hoodlums away from Ijora. If not, maybe the next time the situation will be terrible,” he said.
Though business is gradually returning to normal in the area, the petrol tanker drivers have refused to load fuel from the two depots close to the troubled spot. They said they will not return to work until the government brings the perpetrators of the clash to book.
“Several of our tankers were destroyed, and our men were injured. What is our business with the touts? We do not know anything, and look at the way they destroyed our tankers,” said Taofeek Korodo, the Lagos Zonal Financial Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers.
“We are peace-loving and will not want trouble. We have only taken measure to forestall a repeat of what happened, because we do not want our drivers to be killed and our tankers destroyed. So, we have asked our drivers from the two depots close to the clash to suspend the lifting of products for now until we are through with our investigations,” Mr. Korodo said.
Link:  http://234next. com/csp/cms/ sites/Next/ News/Metro/ 5588569-147/ story.csp