BEVERLY HILLS, December 26, (THEWILL) –Â The Minister of Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Malam Muhammad Bello has confirmed the deaths of three persons in the violence that occurred in Bwari town of Abuja.
This followed a communal clash between Gbagyi natives and Hausa residents in the town which often serves as an alternative road for those travelling to Kaduna via the bypass that goes around the town.
Soldiers have been deployed to quell the unrest, which residents said was initially cult-related but became ethnoreligious following the death of a native of the town, while a 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew has now been imposed on the on Bwari township.
The Minister of FCTA, Malam Muhammad Bello, after a closed-door meeting with stakeholders in the Area Council, declared the curfew while assessing the damages caused by a crisis that erupted in the town on Monday.
The crisis broke out in the early hours of the morning when some suspected groups of cultists stormed the centre of the town, forming barricades and burning car tires at major junctions.
The rioters deprived commuters and motorists of access to public roads and forced many residents to remain indoor.
Emergency workers have since started to put out fires that razed the Bwari market while the FCT Police Command says it has begun investigation to ascertain those behind the rampage.
The town was recently engulfed in crisis following the turbaning of a new Hausa traditional ruler known as Sarkin Bwari who is of a different lineage from the Gbagyi people who are traditionally known with the title of Esu of Bwari.
Protests later followed the formal appointment of Awwal Musa Ijakoro, son of the late Mohammed Musa Ijakoro as the Sarkin Bwari as the natives insisted that the new Sarkin Bwari is not from the town but from a community in Niger state and he should not have been turbanned.
