Abuja: Violence flared in a northern Nigerian state where a clash between two communities claimed five lives prompting authorities to impose dusk to dawn curfew.
Sunday worships by Christians have seen some suicide bombers of Boko Haram radical Islamic sect kill several churchgoers in several parts of northern Nigeria but Taraba state where the violence occurred, had remained peaceful.
However, the violence seemed to have been precipitated by Christians trying to take preventive actions by setting up a check point in a remote town of Ibi and a Muslim who insisted on driving through the barrier set by members of the Boys Brigade.
He was said to have retreated and went back into the town to mobilise his people to launch an attack on the Boys Brigade which eventually spread to other parts of the town.
An eyewitness, Mummy Audu said that dangerous weapons were freely used in the crisis as residents were forced to abandon their homes to take refuge in nearby bushes adding that three corpses were seen littering the major road in the town.
The chairman of the Ibi local government, Ishaka Adamu said though the crisis looked like a religious problem, it has a political undertone to it.
"Government has sent troops to the town to stop degeneration of violence and also prevent further killings", spokesman for Taraba state government, Emmanuel Bello, who confirmed the incident said on phone from Jalingo, the capital of the state.
Bello later announced a curfew by the state government and warned that those found rioting would be shot at sight.
The governor of the state, Dambaba Suntai was involved in a plane crash recently and was flown to Germany for treatment.
PTI
