Killings continue in Jos •Violence rocks Lagos •16 burn to death

Posted by admin Lagos, Latest Politics, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, State News Sunday, January 9th, 2011

AS security men continue to make efforts to halt the fresh crisis that engulfed the city of Jos on Saturday, silent killings are still going on in some parts of the city while

more houses were burnt in the early hours of Sunday.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that after peace returned to Jos after about five hours of skirmishes on Saturday, some groups of youths in various parts of the state capital resorted to secret killings, burying the victims in shallow graves or dumping them at the road sides in the night.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Abdulrahaman Akano, said there were several reports of secret killings, adding that both sides on the dispute were guilty of the silent killings.

Akano further stated that some houses were burnt in the early hours of Sunday at Agwan Doki in Jos South Local Government Area of the state, adding that some group of irate youths set houses of people ablaze while the occupants were away.

Meanwhile, Izu Umunna Cultural Association, Nigeria, a Jos-based Igbo socio-cultural organisation, has condemned Saturday’s violence in Jos, warning that Igbo in Jos would no longer fold their hands and watch the blood of innocent Igbo men and women being spilled on the streets of Jos in the guise of crisis.

According to a statement signed by the president of the group, Professor Zebulon Okoye and secretary general, Chief Elvis Chukwu, which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune in Jos, the association said enough was enough.

In another development, some people were, on Sunday, feared injured, while about 50 vehicles were destroyed as two rival cult groups clashed at Palmgroove area of Lagos State.

The clash, which reportedly started around 2.00 a.m, threw the entire residents of the area into panic.

Spokesperson of the state police command, Frank Mba, confirmed the incident to the Nigerian Tribune, adding that the police in the state were on top of the situation in the area.

Meanwhile, no fewer than 16 people, including students of the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (UNAAB), on Sunday, lost their lives in an auto accident which occurred on the Ibadan-Abeokuta road.

The accident, the Nigerian Tribune gathered, involved two commercial Liteace buses, as a result of bush burning which caused a thick blanket of smoke that prevented the drivers from seeing oncoming vehicles.

The charred bodies of the victims littered the ground, as sympathisers, who thronged to scene of the incident, were in tears, while others wailed.

An eyewitness told the Nigerian Tribune that while one of the buses was heading for Ibadan from Abeokuta with a full load of passengers, the other, which was said to have picked its passengers at Omi-Adio, Ibadan garage, was heading for Kila Market, in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and state fire service were seen at the spot of the accident, battling to retrieve the burnt bodies from the wrecked buses.

Four people, including a three-year boy, survived the accident.

-Tribunewp_posts