Curfew Imposed Following Violence In Nigerian City
Shaveta Bansal - All Headline News Staff Writer Lagos, Nigeria (AHN) - Following the clashes between members of a separatist group and police, a curfew has been declared in the Nigerian city of Onitsha. Troops have also been deployed as the violence has left several people dead, officials and residents said Monday. According to a report by the AFP, the measures were taken Sunday at the request of state governor Peter Obian. The deployment was for "security reasons, the need to protect lives and property," army spokesman Yusuf Mohammed told AFP. A journalist in Onitsha for the state-run News Agency of Nigeria, Emmanuel Ndukuba, confirmed the overnight curfew (7pm to 6am-local time) and presence of soldiers on the streets of the city. The curfew will last for a week. According to the reports, at least seven people were involved in Onitsha's Upper Iweka district clashes Friday between police and suspected members of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB). But Anambra police spokesman Fidelis Agbo denied to AFP by telephone that anybody was killed in the unrest. Obian had late Saturday announced a radio and television broadcast ban on MASSOB and two transport unions "in order to ensure that Onitsha and the whole of Anambra State continue to enjoy peace." He said then that he had formally requested President Olusegun Obasanjo to intervene in a crisis he said was a po |
