Tension As Violence Spreads

• IPOB Alllegedly Kills Four In Asaba, Injures Dozens • APC Chieftain Cautions Military Against Setting Country On Fire • Uneasy Calm Still Pervades Jos

THE ongoing crises in the South East spilled over to Asaba, the Delta State capital, where four persons were on Friday night burnt to death, by unknown assailants.

The assailants, who are suspected to be members of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), reportedly invaded a part a settlement at Abraka Market, at about 10pm and killed three men, one woman and left several others with injuries.

The assailants said to be

armed with guns and other dangerous weapons, fired sporadically into the shacks where the victims were sleeping.

A source in the Hausa community, who pleaded anonymity, alleged that the suspects also threw an improvised explosive into a mosque located at the Cable Point neighbourhood of Asaba, adding that the situation would ha ve been bloody if one bra ve worshipper had not picked up the device and hauled same into the River Niger before it could explode.

The source added that armed soldiers and policemen came to their rescue, and chased the in vaders away, and thereafter ferried the injured persons to the hospital for treatment, and deposited the corpse of the deceased at the mortuar y. Spokesman of the state Police Command, Andy Aniamaka, confirmed the incident, noting that two suspected members of IPOB have been arrested by the police in connection with the incident.

Aniamaka said the suspected militants were arrested in the ceiling of a major hotel, where they hid after the fatal shooting, adding that in vestigations was on to unra vel the motive behind the killings.

He added that the state Commissioner of Police, Zanna Ibrahim, has scheduled a meeting with stakeholders with a view to defusing ten- sion.

INJOS, Plateau State, yesterday, there was unease in the Jos/bukuru metropolis, as a hotel located in the Hausa dominated settlement was set ablaze in the night, despite the curfew imposed by the state government.

Victory Palace Hotel and Suites, located along Mallam Audu Street, Jos, was burnt down and vandalised and property looted by unknown miscreants.

The hotel provides decent lodging, accommodation, bar and restaurant services. The owner of the hotel was not available for comments, but policemen guarding the place in the aftermath of the incident said they could not say at what time the crime was committed, as they were only drafted to the scene yesterday morning after the offence had been committed.

However, shops belonging to most Igbo traders were still under lock, while some of the owners were seen sitting in front of their locked shops. Others simply locked their shops and went home. On Friday most schools remained closed.

While imposing the curfew on Thursday evening, Governor Simon Bako Lalong, expressed dismay and discontentment that some hooligans and hoodlums could resort to violence as a result of rumours of what might be happening to their kinsmen in the South East.

The State Police Command’s spokesperson, ASP Tyopev Mathias Terna, confirmed this when he said the level of apprehension in the metropolis was occasioned by fear of reprisal attacks by the northerners, in response to alleged happenings in the South East.

Spokesman of the Operation Safe Haven (OPSH), Capt. Umar Adam, told Theguardian that they were on top of the situation, as soldiers have been deployed to flashpoints.

He advised residents against panicking as hoodlums were the ones spreading rumours of attacks so that they would loot people’s property.

IN Enugu, a trader, who simply identified himself as Ugochukwu, told The Guardian that the losses incurred by south easterners in terms of human and monetary terms since the crisis started were immense. A resident of Aba, Abia State, Mrs. Ugochukwu, who runs a small restaurant along Ngwa Road, narrated how her shop was looted after she ran away following heavy shooting that caused panic in the area.

“What we went through was a test of war. I managed to take my children home and never remembered that I run a restaurant for two days, until the curfew was imposed, all one hears is gun shots here and there especially at night,” she said