A least four persons, including a toddler, had been shot dead, in renewed inter-cult clash which started late last week and stretched till this week between Icelanders and Greenlanders.
The clash tore the peace of Port Harcourt, leading to the deployment of large number of Joint Task Force (JTF) troops in the city, especially in areas where shootings had been prevalent.
Information available to THISDAY said that two people were shot dead at Victoria Street with three others injured while on Bonny Street and Nembe waterside, one life each was lost to the shootings.
Informed security sources said the problem started as little skirmishes last Thursday but blossomed into full clash weekend when reprisal attacks were allegedly carried out by either side.
Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Mrs. Rita Abbey, said she was out of the State and referred our correspondent to his Assistant, Nkombe Moses, who confirmed that there were shootings at the waterfronts but could not give casualty figures.
Also, his counterpart at the Joint task Force, Major Illiyasu Aminu , said the shootings took place weekend but denied that they deployed new troops in the State because of the shooting.s.
According to him, “JTF has been in those areas for long , so our patrols are not new. However cult clashes will normally elicit movement to such points of shootings which does not mean that there are new deployments”.While the Police see it as a militant attack, the JTF and other security arms see it as inter-cult clashes. It however took the deployment of Police Armoured Personnel Carrier to chase the boys back into the swampy waterfronts to contain the
situation.
Jul282009