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About six people died when factions within the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), a militant Yoruba group, clashed in Lagos on Wednesday, ‘The Guardian’, a Nigerian daily, reported.
News reports cited the OPC as saying that it was trying to rid Mushin, the slum area in Lagos where the fighting took place, of armed robbers and criminals.
But ‘The Guardian’ quotes Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro as saying that the fighting was between two OPC factions and not against a group of hoodlums. Seven houses were burnt in the violence, according to Okiro.
OPC factions have been blamed for numerous clashes in and around Lagos in recent weeks. The OPC denies that it is encouraging the violence but is outspoken in its defence of the rights of the Yoruba people, who are the majority in southwest Nigeria.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions