Okenyi Kenechi
Scores of Hausa traders were on Friday night killed at Rumuosi in Obio/Akpor local government area following reprisal attacks by locals.
Eyewitnesses told Theportcitynews that the attack began when a Hausa yam trader who sold yams at a popular yam zone close to Rumuosi junction stabbed a Rumuosi indigene to death following a little disagreement.
The incident happened around the busy Rumuosi junction.
According to the sources, a Hausa yam trader had packed his vehicle filled with yam in front of the deceased man’s mortuary, blocking the entrance to the place.
The man who is said be the chief mortician in the mortuary asked the trader to move his vehicle out of the way as it is blocking people from entering his business premises.
The Hausa trader was said to have objected which in turn led to a verbal altercation between the duo before the Hausa trader stabbed the mortician on the chest with his dagger and zoomed off in his car.
Our sources said people drinking at a nearby bar saw the mortician fall to the ground in the pool of his blood and he informed them that the yam trader had stabbed him before zooming off.
The mortician died on the way to the hospital.
Irked by the development, the locals attacked the yam zone killing scores of Hausa yam traders at the place. The locals also burnt down the yam zone.
A team of policemen was subsequently deployed to the area to restore normalcy.
However, the Public Relations officer of the Rivers State Police Command, Nnamdi Omoni, told Theportcitynews that he has not been briefed on the matter and cannot make comments.
Theportcitynews also sought an audience with the paramount ruler of Rumuosi who was said to have been in a meeting over the matter.
