Mile 12 Communities Deserted After Communal Clashes

Hours after a bloody clash between Hausa traders and their Yoruba hosts left at least 10 people dead in Mile 12 area of Ketu, Lagos, the atmosphere on Friday was still like a graveyard with malevolent ghosts.

At Church Avenue and Omojuwa Estate environs for example, bullet marks were seen on at least three buildings including a church while more than 20 shack structures housing several low income earning families were reduced to rubbles. However, angry and sad are an understatement of the way residents felt when our correspondent visited Mile 12 on Friday.

Leader of the community, Mathew Omojuwa, a traditional chief, told Saturday PUNCH that many residents were about going to bed after the initial mayhem during the day on Thursday when some Hausa youths numbering over 30 stormed the area again around 11pm, armed with dangerous weapons and attacked residents and burnt down houses.

According to him many of them are alive only by the grace of God. He said the situation could have been very bloody.

“They attacked a church and the houses around it; destroyed too many things I cannot mention. The crisis had been on for about four days now and it started in Agility area before spilling to this side. They burnt houses and destroyed shops. They were aided by policemen who just stood there and did nothing to protect the Yoruba. They just killed people and threw their corpses in the fire,” he said.

However, the destruction was also heavy on the side of some of the Hausa traders at the Mile 12 market.

One of the Hausa traders, Danladi Mohammed, told Saturday PUNCH that his entire stock of foodstuffs were destroyed and looted.

Lamenting about the scale of his loss, Mohammed said that the goods were obtained on credit from Kano State.

“These people have finished me,” he said.

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