Kaduna in North central Nigeria boiled over Wednesday as angry youths in Zango Road, Tudun Wada community in Kaduna South Local Government of Kaduna State in North-West Nigeria, spilled to the streets making bonfires and obstructed traffic in the neighbourhood. At the end, no fewer than four members of the Shiite Islamic sect lay dead with the residence of the Kaduna leader of the sect torched. The youths also demolished the Islamic school in the area.
The incident occurred on Wednesday, following a stand-off between members of the sect and security operatives who had enclosed the sect members to stop them from their planned procession.
Witnesses said the cudgel-bearing youths broke into the Shiite leader’s house and carted away valuables before setting the house ablaze. They waited to see the house actually go up in flame before some of them reluctantly left the area.
The Shiite members who spoke to the press said that Mukhtar Sahabi, leader of the sect in Kaduna and owner of the burnt house at Zango Road, died during the Zaria army clampdown of December 2015.
The police had initially barricaded the road while appealing to the sect members to retreat to their home but the refused, insisting on carrying on with their protests. This prompted the police to release tear gas into the air but even that did little to assuage the rampaging sect members who this time got violent.
The stubbornness of the sect members to leave the already volatile environment drew the wrath of the youths who descended on the sect members.
