₦airaland Forum

Curfew set in Nigerian city of Jos after clashes

JOS, Nigeria, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Authorities imposed a night-time curfew on the central Nigerian city of Jos on Friday and soldiers deployed on the streets after at least four people died in ethnic-religious clashes over a local election.

"Government is imposing a curfew in Jos ,  and the environs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (1700-0500 GMT)," Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital, said in a broadcast.

Residents said soldiers had deployed on the streets of the city, where clashes have broken out in the past between the Muslim and Christian communities, and that several churches and mosques had been burned. (Reporting by Shuaibu Mohammed; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

JOS, Nigeria, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Authorities imposed a night-time curfew on the central Nigerian city of Jos on Friday and soldiers deployed on the streets after ethnic-religious clashes over a local election killed at least four people.

Youths with machetes hacked to death a policeman and burned tyres in one part of the city. Residents said several mosques and churches had also been set ablaze. Scores of people ran to take cover in a police station, a Reuters witness said.

"All law-abiding citizens are assured that government is on top of the situation and should go about their normal lives," Jonah Jang, governor of Plateau state of which Jos is the capital, said in a broadcast.

"Government is imposing a curfew in Jos , and the environs from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (1700-0500 GMT). Government wishes to advise against any further attempt to test its will to maintain peace on the Plateau," he said.

A police spokesman said one officer had been killed in the unrest. A senior doctor at Jos University Teaching Hospital said he could confirm three people had died in his hospital.

ELECTION RUMOUR

The violence was triggered by a disputed vote for a new local government chairman in Jos North, the commercial centre of Plateau state and a key political constituency.

Residents said demonstrators from the Hausa ethnic group began protesting in the early hours of Friday after a rumour spread that their ANPP party candidate had lost the race to the ruling PDP party.

"The group said they were not fighting people but fighting government because of their action," said one witness, who asked not to be named.

Plumes of thick black smoke rose up over the Akpata neighbourhood. Some residents said several homes and shops had been set ablaze.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 140 million people, is roughly equally divided between Muslims and Christians, who generally live peacefully side by side.

But hostility has simmered in the past in Plateau state.

Hundreds were killed in ethnic-religious street fighting in Jos in 2001. Three years later, hundreds more died in clashes in the town of Yelwa, leading then-President Olusegun Obasanjo to declare a state of emergency and impose a curfew.

The tensions in Plateau state have their roots in decades of resentment by indigenous minority groups, who are mostly Christian or animist, towards migrants and settlers from Nigeria's Hausa-speaking Muslim north.

The official results of Thursday's vote have not yet been announced but ANPP observers at polling stations had forecast a clear win for their candidate. (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/)

ADEOMOLE:
Do you the VIN can be used to reorder keys for a Car from the manufacturer.

Only a careless seller would reveal such an information online.

Revealing such Data might do more harm than good.

Though most people do not realize is, but Charles Soludo has saved the economy and Nigerians billions of Naira

nic121:
do you have the installer for wxpython I'm not i have tried downloading it but it keeps telling me to go for pre-requsites i want a shortcut thanks

A good person has nothing to fear,not even physical attacks.