Hausas reportedly flee ile-ife after several of them died from communal clash

Following a communal clash that left several people dead and others
wounded in Ile-Ife, Osun state, the Hausas who reside in the town have
allegedly started moving out.
Hundreds of Hausas were reportedly leaving in batches, through
commercial buses and cars.
While some of them took Ilesa route, others followed Akure route
where they could get direct vehicles to the North.
The Sun newspaper reports that the Hausa people claimed that it
was only their people that lost their lives, following attacks by
hoodlums whom they said, used dangerous weapons, including
guns, cutlasses and cudgels among others.
Report shows that the Hausas started fleeing Ile-Ife on
Wednesday when the clash got terrible and they were still fleeing
in batches as at Friday evening.
One of the Hausa leaders, the Afobaje of the Hausa communities
in Ile-Ife, Alhaji Malami Nasidi, told Saturday Sun that his people
needed to leave the community immediately to escape any
further attack.
According to him, they don’t have anywhere to sleep, adding that
he and his family and other victims had been sleeping outside
and could not guarantee their security.
He said: “We need to go for now because our people are calling us
to come back home and we don’t have any option than to leave
now until peace is completely restored."
Another survivor, Mustapha Hassan, from Zaria said the victims
did not have any option than to go back to the North since their
houses had been destroyed, leaving them homeless.
Hassan said: “We don’t have anywhere to stay. We don’t have
anywhere to sleep. They have destroyed everything that we have.
Most of us had shops and stores where we used to sell carpets,
provisions, phones and other things. Other people used to sell food
stuff like beans, rice, yams, pepper, onions. But everything was
destroyed. We don’t have anything to survive in Ife any more. That
is why we have to go back to our homes in the north."
Another survival, Mustapha Nadabo said: “Since three days ago
when the fight started and they killed a lot of our people, the cloth
I am wearing now is the only thing I have now. I lost everything. I
don’t have any option than to go back to the north where I came
from."
Another Hausa leader, Alhaji Buhari Halum, also lamented the
attack, saying that the Hausa people in Ife had lived in peace and
unity with the Yoruba over the years and wondered why the
latter would take arms against them without recourse to the age-
long relationship.
Meanwhile, the aftermath of the fight left the town desolated as
banks, public and private schools as well as government offices
were under lock and key.
Majority of the civil servants who went to work were sent back
home by security personnel as most of the roads leading to their
offices were blocked.