A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in Kachia, the headquarters of Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State following clashes between Muslims and Christian youths in the area.
The incident was said to have led to the burning and demolition of churches and mosques in the area.
It was gathered that trouble started when some Muslim youths went to fence a prayer-ground known as “Idi” to prevent encroachment only to discover that a part of the fence which was earlier renovated the previous day, was demolished by unknown persons.
Sources said the youths reported the incident to the local government Chairman, Mr. Peter Agaite, who promised to foot the bill for the rebuilding of the demolished portion of the fence.
It was alleged that the council chairman however, did not keep the promise until yesterday when the youths discovered that another part of the fence was pull down again.
The source explained that it was at this point that the youths started suspecting that members of a nearby church might have been responsible for the continuous pulling down of the fence, and therefore descended on the church and demolished it.
Members of the church were said to have been aghast following the demolition of their church as they responded by demolishing a mosques in the area.
Both sides of the divide were said to have embarked on the burning and demolishing of places of worship in the area.
Although no life was lost in the incident, an undisclosed number of both places of worship were said to have been destroyed by angry youths.
Police authorities in the state which confirmed the incident, said a 24-hour curfew had been imposed in the town and its environs by the state government.
The spokesman of the police command in the state, Aminu Lawal, a Superintendant of Police (SP), said in a telephone interview that the situation was under control as policemen had been deployed to the area.
He added that: “No life was lost, but we don’t have a number of worship places that were burnt, we will let you know in due course as we don’t want to give wrong figures.”
Meanwhile, the state Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Yero, has condemned the incident and called on the people of the area not to play into the hands of enemies of peace.
Yero in a statement urged residents of the area to avoid taking the laws into their hands as the state government was already working with all the security agencies to ensure the protection of lives and property of all citizens.
He warned that: “Government will not fold its arms and allow ‘enemies of peace’ cause mayhem in our state. I call on all law abiding citizens to go about their businesses without fear of intimidation as security agencies had been directed to deal decisively with trouble makers.”
Source: Thisdaylive
