Police confirm four dead in OPC/Fulani clash in Kwara, deny bandits’ involvement
Kwara Police Command has confirmed four persons dead in last Friday’s violent clash between members of the Yoruba militia, Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and some Fulani residents in the Ajase-Ipo area of Irepodun Local Government Area in the state.
The incident occurred on Friday, a popular market day in the community when livestock were traded, according to the police, was not a bandits’ attack, as widely speculated.
A statement issued by the police, Friday, and signed by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okesanmi, said the clash was as a result of misunderstanding between members of the militia and the cattle dealers in Kaara market, Ajase-Ipo, Friday evening.
According to the police, the crisis erupted on the evening of Friday at about 6.30pm when one of the cattle being led across the Ilorin/Omu-Aran highway by a Fulani herdsman broke the side mirror of one of the vehicles in the OPC convoy, returning from the Osun-Osogbo festival in Osun State.
In the statement, the police command explained that the misunderstanding led into a serious argument which eventually escalated into exchange of gunfire on the side of both the OPC and the cattle dealers in the market.
“Information received by Ajase-Ipo Divisional Police Headquarters was to the effect that some OPC members in a convoy of about 20 vehicles believed to have been coming from Osogbo, Osun State, were passing through the Kara market where a cow being led across the road by its handler broke the side mirror of one of the OPC vehicles, which resulted in an argument that eventually escalated into an exchange of gunfire by both the OPC members and the cattle dealers in the market.
“Four lifeless bodies of unidentified persons were recovered at the scene.
“The immediate deployment of detachments of policemen and teams of conventional policemen to the scene by the Commissioner of police, Tuesday Assayomo, prevented the escalation and killings of more people,” the police statement read.
According to the police, the four unidentified dead bodies had been evacuated from the scene and deposited at the morgue of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital while the injured were taken to the hospital in Ajase-Ipo for medical treatment.
Okesanmi further added that normalcy has returned to the area while policemen were also stationed at the scene to prevent further break down of law and order.
He said the Ilorin-Omu-Aran highway was now free as the road had been cleared and every obstruction removed from the road.
