The police command in Kogi on Thursday, January 10, said two persons were killed and many injured in a renewed hostility between Egbira and Bassa-Kwomu tribes in the state.
Spokesman for the command, Williams Aya, a deputy superintendent of police, who made this known in Lokoja, however, said that the situation was under control, News Agency of Nigeria reports.
We gathered that Aya confirmed that the clash was between the returning Egbira people who were exiled from their ancestral homes and the Bassa-Kwomu tribe, which had been at loggerheads for months.
He said that the command had drafted a team of mobile and conventional policemen led by the assistant commissioner of police (operations) and area commanders, supported by the army to the area.
Trouble was said to have started when, following the intervention of elders from the area, the Egbira people who left their homes in the wake of the crises were asked to return by the state government.
The move, according to sources, was to pave way for and foster amicable and lasting peace among the two ethnic groups.
The Egbiras were said to have been accompanied by security operatives and political appointees, including Bassa local government area administrator, Samuel Alumka, to Oguma, the headquarters of the council.
They were expected to go back to their various villages and communities from Oguma.
It was alleged that an uncomplimentary remark from the paramount ruler of Bassa-Kwomu ethnic group, the Aguma of Bassa, Chief William Keke, sparked the crisis.
He was said to have asked the returning Egbiras to go back to Lokoja or where they had taken refuge.
In the process, the sources said that fight ensued between the tribes, leaving a trail of casualties as some other persons were said to have lost their lives in the fracas.
Meanwhile, we previously reported that no fewer than 44 persons were killed and 26 different people were severely injured during communal clashes in three local government areas of Kogi state.
The chairman of the judicial commission of inquiry into civil violence in the three communities, Justice Josiah Mejabi, made the revelation in Lokoja, Kogi state, while briefing Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello on the development.
Apart from the human casualty, properties worth N541.3 million were lost to the crises that took place in Omala, Bassa and Dekina local government areas.
