No fewer than four persons were feared dead, yesterday, while 10
others sustained various degrees of injury when two rival youth groups
suspected to have come from Ogbaru Area Council of Anambra State engaged
themselves in a bloody clash.
The face-off, according to the source, was over the control and
ownership of a motor park known as Aba Park located in the heart of
Upper Iweka in the commercial city of Onitsha, along the ever-busy
Onitsha-Owerri Road.
Also, property worth millions of naira, including vehicles and shops,
were reportedly damaged during the clash which resulted in traders at
the Ogbaru Relief Market shutting their shops to protect their lives and
wares.
Trouble was said to have started when one of the warring factions
allegedly stormed the park early in the morning to forcefully take over
its control.
On arrival, the source stated, the other faction attempted to bar
their rival from entering the park but in an apparent move to force
themselves in, both factions clashed.
While the clash lasted, during which machetes and other dangerous
weapons were freely used. Those that died were said to have had their
skulls ripped opened.
Confirming the incident, yesterday, in a telephone chat,Police Area
Commander for Onitsha, Benjamin Wordu, an Assistant Commissioner of
Police put the casualty at only two while the State Police Public
Relations Officer (PPRO) said he was aware of only one casualty, adding
that the police were already on top of the situation.
Reacting to the bloody clash, the Association of Igbo Youths
Organisation, AIYO, warned that it would no longer tolerate incessant
clandestine activities of militant youths from Onitsha and its environs.
Sounding the note of warning, the AIYO State Coordinator, Mr.
Chukwuemeka Omeinyi Oga, added that the Igbo race would not continue to
engage in wanton destruction when other tribes are developing their
areas.
On the alleged discovery of flags with insignia of the Movement for
the Actualization of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) littered the
scene of the clash, MASSOB’s National Director of Information, Comrade
Uchenna Madu, dissociated MASSOB from the incident
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