Hausa/Yoruba Clash: One shot, 7 sustain machete injuries at Ilorin Mandate Market

By Ahmed Ajikobi

There was pandemonium 10am, yesterday, at the Mandate market, Ilorin West Local Government of Kwara State as Hausa pepper sellers and Yoruba butchers at the facility, clashed over parking space right.
Several patrons of the market, traders and passersby scampered for safety in order to avoid being lynched by the warring factions.
The incident resulted in guns shot wound for one while another seven were said to have sustained various degrees of injuries mainly from machete attacks. Also, property, good and other valuables worth millions of Naira were reportedly lost during the fracas.
When National Pilot visited the scene of the incident around 11am, mammoth crowd was noticed outside the gate with most traders locking up their shops to scamper for safety.
Also noticed was the heavy presence of men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps(NSCDC), officers of the Kwara State Police Command and military men who were on ground to arrest the situation.
Speaking with some of the victims, they alleged that this is not the first time the Hausa traders would have heated debate with butchers at the market over parking space. The butchers said they have overtime refrained from going into fisticuff with their Hausa colleagues to avoid casualty.
According to the Chairman, National Butchers Union, Kwara State Chapter, Alhaji Olohuntoyin Badmus, he informed our reporter that the Hausa traders often encroached on the portion of the Yorubas without showing remorse.
He said, “You can see that the Hausas have spoilt all our goods, carted away money and mobile phones of our members. We were this patient with them because our people never wanted to distabilise the peace enjoyed in the state,” he lamented, adding that it will be difficult to recover the loss especially the loans obtained from cooperative societies and banks to buy cows.
Speaking further, he said, “If care is not taken, one may develop hypertension. We urged the state government to rescue the situation by providing parking space for the Hausa traders to avoid a future occurrence,” Badmus submitted.
In his account, another victim, AbdulSamad Animasaun said a total of 21 cows slaughtered at the market were destroyed by the Hausa traders during the attack.
Speaking on the incident, Animasaun said, “some petrol tankers loaded with pepper, onions and tomatoes belonging to the Hausa traders parked in front of the abattoir and in the process of challenging the reason for such development, they descended on the female meat sellers at the market.
“While we were trying to settle the issue, the next thing we saw was a machete attack on our member’s head.”
Similarly, one Alhaja Iya Alaso Sobalaje said, she collected meat worth N95, 000, placed it on counter but the Hausa’s while offloading their tomatoes and onions blocked her goods from the view of would-be customers.
“I and my colleagues told them to vacate the place but they ended up pouncing on us. We then called on our male counterparts to rescue us. One of our men was appealing to them but in the process they just mobilised themselves and inflicted injuries on the butchers. They also went away with the N280, 000 in my bag and destroyed my goods after I scampered for safety.”
Among the victims visited by our reporter at Cottage Hospital, Adeta and General Hospital, Ilorin are;  Abubakar Babatunde, Rasheed Babami and Sulaiman Oba, who all sustained injuries in various parts of the body, gave similar accounts of the fracas.
Speaking with one of the Hausa traders, Bashir Umar, he said prior to the incident, the two groups had always enjoyed fruitful relationship. He said, “What caused the quarrel was the issue of parking as the Yoruba butchers were against our decision to offload our onions from the tankers parked at our space.”
Speaking at the scene of the incident, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Cooperatives, Bayo Onimago said when the incident occurred, the state government immediately deployed security men to arrest the situation.
Meanwhile, it was gathered that the police arrested four suspects while the NSCDC nabbed 16 others in connection with the clash.
Confirming the incident, the spokes person of the state Police Command, DSP Ajayi Okasanmi said it was a clash between tomato sellers and butchers adding that the Commissioner of Police has already deployed men of the state Command to rescue the situation.
He stated that no casualty was recorded and no arrest was made. Okasanmi however urged the warring parties to let peace reign.
According to his NSCDC counterpart, Henry Bilesanmi, the command said during the arrest of the suspects, one Hausa trader while dragging the gun with an officer was hit by ‘muscle’ of the ammunition on his leg.
“In all, 16 people were arrested and during investigation, they were discovered innocent and released. The two parties have also signed a peace pact,” Bilesanmi divulged.
Meanwhile, the Senior Special Assistant of Media and Communications to the Kwara State Governor, Dr Muideen Akorede said as soon as the state government got wind of the incident, security men were contacted to handle the situation.
“I belief the security agencies are on top of the situation,” he said, adding that the state government will work in collaboration with the men in uniform to get to the root cause and subsequently provide solution.
The governor’s aide however called for calm while the security agencies and the state government go about their findings.