unleashed terror on Oja Oba market near the old garage.
The hoodlums suspected to be members of the road transport workers union clashed with some Hausa residents. The violence paralysed activities in the Ekiti State capital for hours.
Property worth millions of naira were either completely burnt or vandalized.
An eyewitness said trouble started Tuesday night when a bag belonging to the wife of a chieftain of road transport workers was snatched by unknown persons along the ever-busy Ijigbo-old garage area. Cases of bag snatching had for long been rife in the area, with some Hausas being accused as the mastermind..
An attempt by the enraged husband of the victim and his followers to find out who actu¬ally stole the bag as well as others before the Tuesday incident ignited the crisis.
However, most-hit areas were where there is a huge concentration of Hausa settlers as well as Oja-Oba, (king’s market), old garage and new garage, believed to be their central trading places.
During the violence, five vehicles belong¬ing to some drivers were vandalized and their windscreens smashed, while about 15 houses and offices rented by the Hausas were either burnt or vandalized.
Some hoodlums, wielding cutlasses and broken bottles also took advantage of the situation to break into shops and cart away property and money.
As at Press time, the popular business sec¬tions of Ado-Ekiti such as Ajilosun, Okeyin¬mi, Okesha, Irona have become a no-go area to both vehicular and pedestrians as a result of the crisis.
This is coming just as banks operating in the city had earlier shut down till further notice as a result of rising crimes in the state.
Those operating bureaux de change among the Hausas also had their share of the attack as some of their offices were vandalized.
Heaps of destroyed onions, tomatoes as well as dry fish and pepper littered the streets.
Journalists were not spared in the attack until security operatives rescued them.
An Igbo trader, Chief Ezekiel Umeh, who fell victim of the burnt Oja Oba market could not hold back tears as he revealed that his goods worth millions of Naira got burnt in the clash while calling on the state government to come to his aid.
The new Police Commissioner, Mr. Etop John James, led policemen to the areas to stop the spread.
While addressing both sides at old garage and Atikankan, the new police boss expressed regrets over the incident and vowed to restore normalcy.
James said he expected people of the state to give him the honour of information before going to the streets, knowing that he just re¬sumed on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti on the orders of the Inspector-General Police Mr. Solomon Arase over the spate of kidnappings and other heinous crimes in the state.
The Sun report
