Two commercial banks, two micro – finance banks and major businesses in Ijebu – Igbo, Ogun State, which opened for businesses by 8am on Monday, hurriedly closed shops an hour or more later following an escalating rival cult violence in the town.
The banks and other shops in the town had opened for the day for businesses but as gunshot continued to rent the air, panic – stricken residents deserted the streets to avoid being struck by bullets and banks and other business owners also shut down lest hoodlums cash in on the tense situation, to loot, a bank customer told The Nation.
Already, six persons, including a bricklayer and whose name is yet to be verified, were said to have been gunned down and several others injured in a renewed gun war that erupted between suspected members of rival cult groups in Ijebu – Igbo, Ogun State.
The gun battle which began around 5:30pm on Sunday at Oke – Sopen road leading to Station bus stop, spilled into Oke – Agbo area and Ojowo, with gunshot booming intermittently all through the night and escalated in the early hours of Monday.
While four persons were said to have been shot dead and several others wounded during the clash on Sunday evening, two additional persons got killed in a pre – dawn reprisal attacks launched by one of the feuding cult groups.
There was pandemonium. Residents and visitors scampered to safety in fear and it was learnt that some of the victims were caught in a cross – fire.
A source in Ijebu – Igbo told The Nation that three persons, believed to be members of the same family, were killed in front of their father’s house in Ojowo, another killed near the Amazing Graze Petroleum Station while two others were shot dead at Odobalogun – all in Ijebu – Igbo town.
It was also learnt that a detachment of soldiers, Operatives of the Federal Special Anti – Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Anti – cult unit of the Ogun State Police Command, Anti – Riot Policemen and regular armed policemen deployed in their hundreds to the volatile town since yesterday evening, were sighted on Monday morning labouring to restore order.
The Nation gathered that violence erupted between two rival cult groups in Ijebu – Igbo, the Headquarters of the Ijebu North Local Government Area, around 5:10pm shortly after the end of two separate political meetings in the seedy town by an equally rival politicians in Ogun East ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the cult clash, said the Area Commander, Ijebu Police Area Command, the Divisional Police Officers in Police formations in Ijebuland, Operatives of the Federal Special Anti – Robbery Squad (F-SARS), Anti – cult unit of the Ogun State Police Command, Anti – Riot Policemen and regular armed policemen have all been deployed to the area to restore order.
Abimbola, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), added that the men had enforced normalcy and advised residents not to panic, assuring that the perpetrators of the violence would be arrested soon.
