Palpable tension was in the air and people scampered for safety as suspected burglars clashed with the police at the popular Mandate market, Adewole , Ilorin, Kwara state on Saturday, and the incident has reportedly left scores of people injured.
This was obviously recorded because there was a stampede.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that some shop owners at the market had complained to security agencies that some petty traders, guards, cleaners and load carriers, who reside in the market, usually break into shops at the market in the night unhindered.
Policemen at the market police post had carried out a raid and arrested some suspects following complaints by some victims of burglary incidents.
It was further learned that some of the suspects arrested on suspicion of being lock pickers were young people from the northern part of the country and their kinsmen had insisted that they must be released ,a situation that degenerated into fracas .
Pandemonium reportedly broke out in the market, prompting the police to fire tear gas at the mob that had allegedly gathered to attack policemen and shop owners who had accused them of being burglars.
Following the free –for- all, shop owners quickly closed their shops and ran for their dear lives while motorists also avoided the Mandate Market area.
Reinforcements comprising police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officers helped in having the market returned to a state of normalcy.
Spokesman for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the state, Ayeni Olasunkanmi, said the fracas was an aftermath of a raid earlier carried out by law enforcement officers at the market.
‘The issue there at the market was an aftermath of a raid carried out by the Police due to complaints from the marketers that some shop breakers used to operate inside the market in the night.
Some of the suspects arrested are Hausa people and their kinsmen were insisting that the police should release them.
The situation there is under control. Other sister agencies are there to ensure that the situation is brought under control’ he said.
Also, spokesman for Kwara state Police Command, Okasanmi Ajayi, said the breach of public peace at the market was as a result of ‘a misunderstanding between two groups ; tomato and pepper sellers which had led to the fracas’.
‘The Commissioner of Police Kwara state, CP Paul Odama has dispatched teams of policemen to the scene.
Calm is gradually being restored. Full details of both immediate and remote cause(s) of the incident would be made public as soon as investigation is concluded. As we speak, no casualty has been recorded among the marketers or the police’ he said- Team@orientactualmags.com
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