In Ilorin, Police and suspected cultists clash.

On Saturday, suspected cult members clashed with police in Ilorin, Kwara State’s capital.

During the bloodbath, one police sergeant allegedly received gunshot wounds to the head. The incident, which began in the early hours of yesterday, occurred in the Lajolo community, near the Kwara State Polytechnic.

According to a source, a stray bullet from a gunshot killed a polytechnic student. Polytechnic students gathered in large numbers to block the busy Ilorin-old Jebba road around the Oyun bridge axis. They also set fire to used tyres on the highway, obstructing vehicular traffic.

Confirming the incident, Ajayi Okasanmi, Spokesperson for the state police command, stated that “the pandemonium experienced today (Saturday) within the area arose as a result of the attack unleashed on a team of Police detectives from the Special Tactical Squad (STS) FIB, Abuja, who were on the trail of some cultists in the area.”

Okasanmi went on to say that some suspected cult members “attacked and killed a student of Kwara State University, Malete on Friday last week, four of the cultists were arrested, and dangerous weapons were recovered from the suspects.”

Said he:  “Information available to the STS team indicated that some of the cultists were hiding at Lajolo area of Kwara Polytechnic Ilorin, where similar attack was unleashed on one student named Idris Aderemi by the same cultists around 6am on Saturday in the same area.

“This prompted the visit to the area by the STS team. Surprisingly, the cultists who were already in ambush attacked the police team damaging the police Hummer bus and inflicting a gunshot injury on the head of one police Sergeant, Adebayo Abdulahi attached to the STS team.

However, two cultists, one Ahmed surname unknown and one Musibau A.K.A Shaban were arrested with one fabricated English pistol with three live ammunition, two live cartridges and one pistol magazine.

“The injured policeman and the suspects have been taken to the hospital for treatment.”

The police spokesperson said that “calm has been totally restored in the affected area, while policemen are on standby to forestall any further act of lawlessness from any quarters.”

Also speaking the polytechnic spokesperson Yunus Abdulkadir absolved the students from the fracas, adding that the incident did not happen at the polytechnic’s gate.

Mallam Abdulkadir added that “the incident that occurred at Lajolo community early this morning was between the police and Lajolo community and has nothing to do with the polytechnic students or the campus, as first semester CBT examinations are going on the campus without any disturbance.

“However, the management of the polytechnic has magnanimously accepted the plea of the students who could not make it to the campus before the blockage at Oyun, to reschedule their examinations to another date to be communicated to them via their heads of the department.”