NO fewer than six people were killed and many others severely injured on Tuesday in Sango and Ota in Ogun State when the Aworis and the Egbas engaged themselves in a battle. Nigerian Tribune learnt that an Assistant Commissioner of Police, Mr. Sunny Ukata, was shot in the eye by the protesters, who were armed with cutlasses, guns, cudgels and stones. He was immediately rushed to an undisclosed hospital in Abeokuta.
The clash was said to have been caused by the alleged imposition of monarchs on the Awori people by the Olowu of Owu, Oba Adegboyega Dosunmu.
The two towns, which were turned into a battlefield are the commercial nerve centres of the state and commercial activities in the areas were completely paralysed as motorists deserted the roads.
The Ogun State government, a few weeks ago, issued a statement that the coronet monarchs installed by the Olowu should stop parading themselves as Obas of their respective villages.
It was gathered that a group under the aegis of Awori Consultative Council (ACC), staged a peaceful demonstration to former President Olusegun Obasanjo�s farm in Ota to express their displeasure at the imposition of the monarchs by the Olowu.
The protesters, the Nigerian Tribune gathered, were mostly men and women, the Olorisas, masquerades and hunters who, while returning from Obasanjo�s farm, were attacked by people suspected to be the Egbas.
The prompt intervention of anti-riot and regular policemen of the state command defused the tension while two armoured tanks with registration numbers NPF 2360 and NPF 676C were strategically positioned at the Sango-Ota roundabout.
The policemen, who were led to the scene by a Chief Superintendent of Police, Mr. Wale Olokoda, were able to pacify the two groups as they appealed to them to sheathe their swords.
One man said to be in his 30s and identified as Idowu Olaomo, aka Coach, was found dead on the Ansarudeen Teacher Training School road in Ota.
The deaths in the crisis were said to have occurred when youths clashed at Sango junction, Oju Ore and Joju Junction. Others said to have been injured included Chief Bashiru Osunlabi, who is the fourth in rank to the Olota of Ota, Oba Alani Oyede; Afolabi Adeosun, Tajudeen Adelowo and Fatai Lawal.
In a communiqu� issued by the ACC after the crisis, the group said the areas would not be peaceful unless Oba Dosunmu reversed his decision.
Addressing journalists, the spokesperson of the group, Chief Nosiru Dehinde, said, �The peaceful demonstration was based on the Awori people�s final appeal to Ogun State government to put a stop, once and for all, to the Adegboyega Olusanya Dosunmu, Olowu of Owu, Abeokuta�s unrepentant encroachment on Aworiland, in spite of several government’s pronouncements over his illegal puppet Obas and Baales in Awori Land.
�Since the Olowu of Owu and his cohorts at Sango, Ota, Ijoko-Ota and Atan Ota have thrown to the winds Ogun State government’s directives and official condemnation of the Olowu and his illegal acts, we will not sit down and watch our ancestral home and traditional authority trampled on. Aworis are neither Owu nor Egba.
�We say in strong terms that no Oba is above the law; therefore, Olowu and his illegal coronet Obas and Baales on Aworiland should be made to face the law immediately to avoid bloodshed. The Aworis consider the unsolicited provocation as effrontery and insult to the collective existence as a distinctive sub-ethnic group�, he added.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Femi Awoyale, confirmed that a senior police officer was shot in the clash.