One person was reportedly killed in a communal clash that broke out yesterday at Oko Baba, a slum community in Ebute-Metta area of Lagos.
The community’s plank market was gutted by inferno on Friday with traders and marketers losing hundreds of thousands.
The state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had sent an inter-ministerial team to assess the damage and investigate on the immediate and remote causes of the inferno.
But while the victims were still counting their losses, a violent clash broke out Sunday morning between a group of Hausa truck pushers and some Oodua People’s Congress members.
It was learnt that police officers of the Denton Police Station, Lagos State Command, were mobilised to the scene to restore peace and normalcy to the area.
The scrap dealers were said to have gone to buy some items from the burnt shanties when some OPC boys allegedly accosted them.
Hassan Ibrahim, Leader Hausa Youth, Oko-Baba, said the scrap dealers were harassed by some miscreants and OPC demanding for money before they could go with the scrap materials.
The police spokesman, DSP Bala Elkhana, however, said he was not aware of the clash and promised to find out and get back to our correspondent.
Meanwhile, the state’s Commissioner for Finance, Rabiu Olowo, who led the government team to the site, which included the Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Idris Salako and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Adebowale-Owoeye, appealed for calm among the warring parties.
