12 dead, 1000 houses burnt as clash worsens

Death toll from the

Not fewer than 1000 houses have gone up in flames as a result of the Monday, February 26, 2018 clash.

But the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Austin Iwar, says no stone would be left unturned in unravelling causes of the clash.

Crisis started when a Christian girl who was allegedly engaged to a Muslim man was about to convert to Islam, a development that angered youths of the predominantly Christian settlement.

Iwar noted that eighteen people have been arrested in connection to the incident.

The Police Commissioner, in company of the General Officer Commanding I Division of the Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Major-General Mohammed Mohammed and state commandant of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps, Modu Goni, expressed shock at the scale of destruction.

“It is unfortunate. As we can see, the level of destruction is very high, some people were killed and properties were destroyed. This is not what we wish for our state, Kaduna," Iwar said.“Let me say that we will not leave any stone unturned in investigating the remote and immediate causes of this problem. We will talk to the stakeholders here and try to find out what the problem is and through civil problem solving approach and conflict resolution, we will deal with that.”

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Police recover petrol bombs

The Police commissioner also disclosed that bombs and other dangerous items were also recovered.

His words:“We will also look at the criminal aspect of it. So far, we have arrested eighteen people we suspect were involved in the crisis. We are working round the clock to ensure that we get to the root of the matter.

“We have recovered a number of dangerous items, including petrol bombs. We believe this is a planned thing and we will get to the root of the matter. We will do a thorough investigation to ensure that it does not happen again.”

He said the police was aware of “skirmishes” in the area two weeks ago and had made some arrests “but we did not know that there was a grand design to carry out massive destruction as it happened.”

“The most important thing to us is, when was it reported to us? Travelling from Kaduna to this place takes about forty minutes. We needed to prepare and mobilize our men. Police officers are not like items sitting on the shelves of supermarkets.

“We needed to bring people from other places. We took necessary steps to check the crisis. We brought in military reinforcement, Civil Defence and Police reinforcement,” he added.

The Police commissioner said eleven victims of the crisis were buried around 12 midnight, while one person who sustained injuries later died in the hospital on Tuesday, February 27, 2018.