Police, Soldiers Patrol Streets of Asaba After Attack on Hausa/Fulani Settlement

By Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

Following the attack by gunmen Friday night that left four persons dead in Asaba, the Delta State capital, heavy security presence was noticed in the city yesterday.

Over 20 vehicles loaded with heavily armed policemen and soldiers paraded major streets at intervals blaring sirens.

The assailants reportedly opened fire on some members of the Abraka community in Asaba with a large population of Hausa/Fulani extraction.

The Delta State Police Commissioner, Mr. Zanna Ibrahim, confirmed the incident whose motive remained a mystery to residents.

THISDAY learnt that the gunmen invaded the unsuspecting predominantly Hausa/Fulani settlement at about 10p.m. Friday night at the Abraka market within the Asaba metropolis, killing three men, one woman and left several others with injuries.

The suspected killers shot sporadically into a place where some people were said to be sleeping.

 A Hausa-Fulani source told THISDAY in Asaba that the suspects also threw a suspected explosive device into their Mosque at Cable Point Asaba.

Armed soldiers and policemen came to the rescue of Abraka community Asaba residents, chasing the invaders away by firing into the air.

He said the security agents took the injured persons to the hospital for treatment and deposited the corpses of the deceased at the mortuary, lamenting that they did not sleep all through the night.

The remains of the four persons killed by the unknown gunmen were Saturday afternoon laid to rest in accordance with Islamic burial rites.

The Delta State Police Command said in a statement by the PPRO, Andrew Chiamaka, later on Saturday that two persons had been arrested in connection with the shooting incident in Asaba on Friday night.

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