Clash claims five lives, 50 homes in Kogi

AFRESH communal clash between the people of Igala and Bassa Kwomu at Aloko-oguma in Bassa council area of Kogi State has reportedly claimed five lives and 50 houses.

The violence, which erupted on Friday, was said to have extended to Saturday as people from the two tribes bitterly engaged in a free-for-all.

Theguardian gathered that the clash broke out after a disagreement between the Bassa Kwomu and the Igala over the harvest of a disputed cashew nuts farm.

It was further learnt that the violence that actually start from a minor misunderstanding among some farmers over the ownership of the said farm later snowballed into a communal crisis leading to the casualties on both sides.

The Igala had alleged that the people of Bassa Kwomu in the ensuing fracas killed one of theirs and secretly buried him without a trace of the grave.

The situation, it was reported, infuriated the Igalas who swiftly mobilised for a reprisal that eventually left five indigenes of Bassa Kwomu allegedly dead and torching of over 50 houses belonging to the same people.

Theguardian checks revealed that there has been an age-long rivalry and bottled-up anger between the two tribes in the Confluence state, but the cashew harvest disagreement only provided an opportunity for them to ventilate their pent-up anger of years.

Confirming the incident, the member representing Bassa constituency in the Kogi State House of Assembly, Sunday Shigaba, said some individuals had been having issues among themselves over cashew before the crisis came to its peak yesterday.