No fewer than four persons were feared dead yesterday
in Owerri, Imo State and Abonema in Rivers State, is separate bloody attacks,
as several others sustained bullet wounds.
Two of the deceased were killed at Ama Hausa, Owerri, Imo
State capital, following a misunderstanding between a Hausa trader and an
indigene of Owerri municipality, while the other two lost their lives in what
community sources described as a battle for supremacy by rival cult groups in
Abonnema, headquarters of Akuku Toru Local Government Area of Rivers State.
In Owerri, business activities were hurriedly shut in parts
of the capital city, especially along the ever busy Douglas Road, and the
adjoining streets, as news of the face-off spread like wild fire.
The timely arrival of a detachment of armed soldiers and
policemen saved what would have snowballed into real inter-tribal conflict in
the city.
Although there were several accounts to the incident, one of
the stories that made the rounds revealed that the alleged Owerri indigene and
his team were in the area to collect the usual daily toll from the Hausa
traders, before the misunderstanding reared its ugly head.
A man from the North, who claimed to have witnessed the incident,
said the Hausa trader, who got unduly incensed by what he called “incessant
harassment” by the toll collectors, took his knife and unleashed an attack on
the indigene.
The man said the victim quickly grabbed one of the knives on
the Hausa man’s table and struck his attacker.
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