No fewer than five persons were reportedly killed and several houses razed in a clash between traders and okada riders at Dei Dei, a community in Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Wednesday.
Eye witnesses said an accident in which an Okada rider allegedly knocked down and killed a woman led to the outbreak of violence in the area.
One resident claimed that he could identify five persons killed in the area.
He, however, alleged that security who had since been alerted to the violence had yet to arrive in the area.
He expressed fear that the crisis was fast becoming an ethnic issue.
Although the casualty figure couldn’t be officially verified, a resident said his house was set ablaze by rioters.
It was learnt that the traders had attacked the Okada rider, blaming him for the passenger’s death.
But an attempt by the Okada rider’s colleagues to rescue him from his attackers later resulted in the violence.
Some other eye witnesses claimed that an attempt by some other persons to rescue the driver of the trailer that hit the Okada and crushed the passenger led to the violence.
As of the time of writing this report, it was learnt that security operatives had moved to the scene to quell the riot.