Posted by By Desmond Mgboh, Kano on
Religious violence weekend broke out in Tudun Wada town, headquarters of Tudun Wada council, with fear of possible backlash in Kano, the state capital.
Religious violence weekend broke out in Tudun Wada town, headquarters of Tudun Wada council, with fear of possible backlash in Kano, the state capital.
Sources told Sunday Sun that trouble started following a sharp disagreement between two students of the Government Day Secondary School with different religious beliefs. This degenerated into an uproar and commotion in the school premises.
Apparently to forestall further breakdown of law and order, the school authorities decided to close down the institution and ordered the students to go home.
Once they poured onto the streets, however, the students reportedly decided to embark on a demonstration which was soon hijacked by miscreants who, in turn, unleashed a reign of terror on the town, looting as will.
Sunday Sun gathered that motorists plying the area, a major transportation route to Jos, Platueau State, were denied thorough-fare, while non-indigenes resident in the area had since taken refuge at the nearby Police headquarters.
As at press time Friday night, the casualty figure could not be established although an unofficial source described it as "heavy".
Confirming the incident, the State Command of the Nigeria Police Force said it was on top of the situation. The police declaration was contained in a statement personally signed by the Commissioner of Police, Alhaji M. Yusufu, entitled "Kano State Police Command in Full Control".
Wrote he: "In an attempt to forestall the breakdown of law and order, the school authority decided to close down the school, for the day and the students were asked to go home. But as the students were leaving the school premises to their various homes, they became riotous and some hoodlums took advantage of this confusion to wreack havoc on the innocent citizens and some buildings were torched."
The police later said that they had restored normalcy in the affected area while noting that the persons who were injured in the melee had also been taken to the hospital for treatment.
The Police also declared that a full-scale investigation into the matter had since commenced, while warning members of the public not to take advantage of the situation to further create confusion by disseminating rumors and thus blow the situation out of proportion.
As at Friday night, there was an uneasy calm in the metropolitan city of Kano as news of the fracas in Tudun Wada was just filtering in. The town is 250 kilometers from the state capital.
It was, however, feared that the situation might change for worse when some victims begin to come into the metropolis.