A chieftaincy tussle that engulfed Igogo town in Ekiti state in the outgoing week has reportedly claimed life of a resident, with several others sustaining various degrees of injury.
The crisis which started like a mere disagreement between parties on Monday, suddenly took a dangerous turn on Thursday and dragged till the early hours of Friday .
This was when news filtered into town that one of the persons contesting to become the Asaba chieftancy title holder of the town had been allegedly kidnapped by unknown persons.
Our Correspondent learnt that the kidnapped contestant was the most popular among the two men said to be eyeing the Asaba chieftancy title,while he equally enjoyed the support and backing of most of the residents, who preferred him to the second person, allegedly being propelled by the traditional ruler of the town, Oba Sunday Adebomi.
A resident, Sola Akande told confirmed that the crisis snowballed into major violence when it became known that the town’s traditional ruler had made up his mind to forcefully impose the unpopular candidate on the town.
The disturbance was said to have aggravated beyond control when soldiers and men of the Nigeria Police mobile force, attached to the state crime control unit, code-named “Operation Flush” were drafted to bring the situation to normalcy.
It was learnt that on sighting the armed officials, the residents, rather than fleeing for cover, reportedly confronted them and even chased some of them into the bush, using all manner of dangerous items including charms while some were wounded.
A security source said the drafted men did not want to apply maximum force on the erring residents because of an earlier appeal to them by government to thread softly and handle the crisis professionally.
Daily Post reports that as of the time of filling these reports, normalcy had begun to return to the town, soon after security men reinforced and took control of every area.
When contacted, the police Public Relations Officer, Alberto Adeyemi though confirmed the clash, declined knowledge of any death.
He said a Deputy Commissioner of Police led the team of security men that eventually returned peace to the area.