Expdonaloaded News; Hoodlums terrorize Ado Ekiti

Three people were feared dead and many were injured yesterday as hoodlums unleashed terror on the Oja Oba market around the old garage area of Ado Ekiti.

The hoodlums suspected Hausa and Yoruba men of the road transport workers union paralysed activities in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital during the fracas.
Property worth millions of naira were either completely burnt or vandalized. It was gathered that about three persons may have lost their lives in the process.
According to eye witness accounts, trouble started in the night of Tuesday when a bag belonging to wife of a Chieftain of road transport workers was snatched by unknown persons along the ever-busy Ijigbo-old garage area of the city.
It was learnt that cases of bag snatching had for long been a recurrent crime in the area, with some of the jobless Hausas being prime suspects.
Checks by Expdonaloaded blog revealed that an attempt by the enraged husband of the victim and his followers to find out who actually was responsible for the snatching of her wife’s bag as well as other bags usually snatched at night ignited the crisis.
The controversy that started like a small issue later developed into a full blown crisis affecting a few areas in the city.However, most hit were Atikankan area where there is huge concentration of Hausa settlers as well as Oja-Oba, (king’s market), old garage and new garage, believed to be central trading places of the Hausas..During the ensuing violence, no fewer than 5 vehicles belonging to the drivers were vandalized and their windscreens broken while close to 15 houses and offices rented by the Hausas were either completely burnt or vandalized.post by expdonaloaded.blogspot.com..Some hoodlums, wielding cutlasses and broken bottles also took advantage of the situation to break into shops and cart away property and money which value could not be ascertained as at press time.As at the time of filling these reports, the popular business areas of Ado Ekiti such as Ajilosun, Okeyinmi, Okesha, Irona among others 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 hurriedly shut down work till further notice.
Those operating Bureau De Change business among the Hausas also had their share of the attack as virtually all their offices were vandalized.
In the same vein, heaps of destroyed trading items such as onions, tomatoes as well as dry fish and pepper, apparently belonging to the Hausas currently litter the streets.
Journalists who tries to report the incident were not left out as some were attacked and camera seize from them not for the timely intervention of security operative who rescued them.
An Igbo trader Chief Ezekiel Umeh who fell victim of the burnt kings market could not hold back tears as he revealed his goods worth five million Naira got burnt in the clash while calling on the state government to come to his aid as he lost all belongings to the inferno.
It took the personal intervention of the newly posted Ekiti state Police Commissioner, Mr. Etop John James who led scores of both regular and mobile men of the force to the trouble spots before the mob retreated.
While addressing both sides of the residents at old garage and Atikankan, the new Police boss expressed regrets over the incidence and vowed to restore normalcy in no time.
He said he expected people of the state to give him the honour of information before going to the streets, knowing fully well that he just resumed on Tuesday in Ado-Ekiti on the orders of the IGP over the spate of kidnapping and other heinous crimes in the state.