FCT minister orders indefinite closure of Dei-Dei market over riot

Mohammad Bello, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), Abuja, has ordered the indefinite closure of Dei-Dei market following a clash between traders and Okada riders.

The minister who confirmed that four people were killed in the crisis, gave the order on Wednesday after inspecting the scene of the incident with Sunday Babaji, FCT commissioner of police, and other security agencies.

While there are varying versions of what led to the riot, some residents said there was an accident involving a motorcycle around the market in the area.

The accident was said to have resulted in the chaos that followed.

During the riot, several persons were seen with what appeared to be machetes, while shops were razed and vehicles, as well as motorcycles, destroyed.

The minister directed the community and the market leaders to fish out the hoodlums responsible for the crisis.

“The community and market leaders must fish out hoodlums and bad eggs among them, unfortunately, this time around hoodlums carry arms and they shot innocent people,” NAN quoted him as saying.

“As a matter of fact, I saw four corpses this is very sad and totally unequivocally unacceptable in Abuja.

“We have agreed with security agencies that full scale investigations will be done, and the communities have to be part and parcel of the solution or else there will be no peace.

“In the interim the timber market and the surrounding markets, including all the activities on-road that have clustered the road and made it unpassable will all stop until the technical team reviews everything, and then we will take the next decision.”

Bello said there was no tribal or religious misunderstanding because all the leadership of various communities have lived in peace for many years.

“This is simply the matter of criminals and hoodlums taking the laws into their hands,” he said.

The FCT police in a statement said it has restored normalcy in Dei-dei town.

ccept