Eleven people including some of the assailants have been killed with houses and vehicles burnt during an attack within Igangan community in the Ibarapa Area of Oyo State.
The police command spokesman, Wale Osifeso, said the assailants attacked the area last night with guns and other dangerous weapons but a combined team of the police, hunters, and vigilantes were able to beat back the criminal elements.
“On 5th June 2021 at about 2310hrs (22:10 GMT), suspected armed bandits… invaded Igangan Community in the dead of the night,” Osifeso said in a statement.
“In the process, eleven persons including some of the assailants were confirmed dead,” he added.
Osifeso further states that the situation is being closely monitored and a comprehensive investigation is ongoing to apprehend the perpetrators.
A number of buildings including a traditional ruler’s palace and vehicles were also burned down.
Police said it deployed units on patrol “to forestall further disintegration of law and order in the area.”
This attack is coming days after Governor Seyi Makinde visited the area and held a town hall meeting with the community. Buhari Ibarapa has been under the spotlight recently over clashes erupting intermittently between farmers and herders, resulting in deaths and injuries.
Ethnic tensions are not uncommon in Nigeria where more than 250 ethnic and linguistic groups live side by side.
Clashes erupted in nearby Ibadan, the Oyo state capital, back in February, between a group of Yoruba who dominate the region and traders from the Hausa community, who mainly hail from Nigeria’s north.
Southern states have seen a surge in intercommunity tensions in recent months over northern Fulani herders who move south for grazing cattle, often putting them in conflict with local farmers.
Fiery rhetoric from some southern officials blaming northern Fulani for a surge in crime and kidnappings in their regions has stoked tensions.
President Muhammadu Buhari has previously warned against using ethnicity for political leverage, but some regional leaders accuse him of not acting decisively because he is himself an ethnic Fulani.
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