Two persons were feared killed and over 20, including a policeman injured, yesterday, in Ilorin, Kwara State, during a fracas between students of the Kwara State Polytechnic, and operatives of the Nigeria Police Force.
The dead student and a member of the host community were allegedly struck by stray bullets, at the Elekoyangan area of the state.
At the time of filing this report, a detachment of soldiers from the 22 Mechanised Division of the Nigeria Army had been drafted to the troubled area to maintain peace.
But the State Police Command in a statement, yesterday, explained that the pandemonium was a result of an attack unleashed on a team of police detectives from the Special Tactical Squad (STS), Abuja, that was on the trail of some suspected cult members in the area.
The statement signed by the command’s spokesman Ajayi Okasanmi, a CSP said that “information available to the STS team indicated that some of the cultists were hiding at Lajolo area of Kwara Polytechnic, Ilorin, where a similar attack was unleashed on one student named, Idris Aderemi, by same cultists at about 0600hrs today (yesterday) 29/1/22, in the same area.
“This prompted the visit to the area by the STS team. Surprisingly, the cultists who were already in ambush, attacked the police team damaging the police Hummer bus, and inflicting a gunshot injury on the head of one police Sergeant, Adebayo Abdulahi, attached to the STS team.
“In the ensuing imbroglio, students in their numbers came out to block the road and prevented the free flow of traffic, and burning tyres on the road,” the statement said, “the Commissioner of Police Kwara State, CP Tuesday Assayomo, immediately dispatched teams of policemen to the area to restore peace.
Meanwhile, management of the polytechnic has announced the rescheduling of an examination that was earlier slated for yesterday.
This rescheduling was contained in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the institution, Abdulkadir Yunus.
