Less than 24 hours to the 2006 census, a bloody boundary dispute has erupted between the Irele community and the Ijaw of Taribo in Ondo State, Nigeria, leaving at least six people dead.
The Idoma of Benue State have also filed a class action at a Federal High Court in Makurdi, seeking to stop the census in the state until all the local government areas thickly populated by the Idoma are properly enumerated.
These are besides other violent protests in several parts of the country including Lagos, Kano and Katsina states ahead of the headcount.
Several other people were seriously injured in the 10-hour clash between the Irele youths and Ijaw in Ondo State.
The two sides had also clashed last year during the demarcation conducted by the National Population Commission (NPC). Two persons died in that first confrontation.
Vanguard reliably learnt that on Friday some youths from Irele invaded Taribo village, the settlement of the Ijaw and claimed that the place belonged to Irele.
The claims and counter claims that followed sparked a bloody fight in which dangerous weapons were freely used by both parties, leading to the death of six persons.
In a swift reaction to the crisis, the Ijaw community in a save-our-soul letter sent to Governor Olusegun Agagu and security agencies claimed that they were being unjustly persecuted by the people of Irele. They alleged that �militant youths from Irele local government killed the six people who died in the attack following the demand that their (Ijaw) area be merged with Irele.�
In the letter, Secretary of the Ijaw Community, Mr. Julius Ogoba, alleged that �the corpses of those killed in the July fracas were still lying at the Ore Specialist Hospital morgue” and the state had entered criminal charges against those arrested.
The Ijaw said Taribo was in Odigbo local government area and not Irele council area. They vowed not to accept any arrangement that would merge them with Irele in the name of census.
But the State Police Command yesterday claimed ignorance of any clash, saying the Divisional Police Officer in the area was yet to brief the command.
Spokesman for the command, Mr. Adeniran Aremu, requested journalists to wait till today for police statement on the matter.
Meanwhile, ad-hoc enumerators in the state have continued their protest over non-payment of their training allowances. In a last minute effort to placate the enumerators, they were asked to report at Aquinas College, Akure for payment but many of them who were not paid protested and threatened to disrupt the exercise in the state.
The protest over non payment started last Thursday at three centres in the state as coordinators fled when the enumerators vowed to lynch them and it took the intervention of the Akure South Local Government Chairman, Mr. Adedayo Omolafe, to control the tension.
Policemen that were deployed to the Aquinas College, venue of the payment at the weekend tear gassed the protesters when they became violent.