APC and PDP supporters clash in Nasarawa, 1 injured, 4 killed.

It was another round of violence in Nasarawa State as a vicious clash between All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) supporters in Daddere town of Obi local government area left four persons dead and one in critical condition.

Trouble started on Monday when PDP supporters in the area took to the streets to welcome the member representing their constituency in the state Assembly, Hon Sidi Bako, who with other PDP members absconded from their constituencies from the start of the ongoing impeachment saga.

This did not go down well with APC supporters who were said to have made efforts to frustrate the rousing welcome given to the PDP lawmaker and trouble ensued, leaving a PDP member with a severe cut on the arm who was immediately rushed to Sandaji Hospital in Lafia for treatment.

Men of the Joint Task Force (JTF) were promptly deployed to the area to quell the crisis and stop further escalation of the violence.

LEADERSHIP gathered from a reliable source in the area who did not want his name in print that the PDP supporters wanted to take immediate revenge but were deterred by the presence of soldiers and armed police officers drafted to keep peace in the area.

What started like a political feud, however, took an ethnic dimension yesterday as Eggon youths who could not avenge the injury inflicted on one of their kinsmen reportedly by a Gwandara youth due to security presence took the vengeance to the farms where they killed four Gwandara persons on their farms in the hinterland away from security men.

A resident of the area, Mallam Shuaibu Abubakar, however denied insinuations that the crisis has any ethnic undertone, insisting that those killed were APC supporters which is the professed party of the Gwandara people since Governor Umaru Tanko Al-Makura is also a Gwandara man.

When contacted, the police public relations officer, Ismaila Numan, confirmed the incident, saying the police have recovered four corpses while one is in critical condition.

He however assured that the situation has been contained as the JTF have expanded the scope of their vigilance.

When LEADERSHIP visited people were seen evacuating the area to nearby Lafia, the state capital, for fear of escalation of the violence even with heavy security presence.

Source: Leadership