The Kwara State Police Command said it retrieved bodies of four people killed in a clash between the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) and Fulani cow dealers in Ajase-Ipo, a town in the state.

FIJ learnt that the clash broke out on Friday and was caused by a misunderstanding between members of the OPC and Fulani cattle dealers at a market.

In a statement, Ajayi Okasanmi, Kwara police spokesperson, said the clash killed four people and injuries were sustained on both sides. Windscreens of commercial buses and cars were also shattered in the clash.

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“Information received by Ajase-Ipo Divisional Police Headquarters was to the effect that some OPC members in a convoy of about 20 vehicles believed to have been coming from Osogbo, Osun State, were passing through the Kara market where a cow being led across the road by its handler broke the side mirror of one of the OPC vehicles, which resulted in an argument that eventually escalated into an exchange of gunfire by both the OPC members and the cattle dealers in the market,” the statement read in part.

The police said the misunderstanding led to a serious argument which eventually escalated into an exchange of gunfire.

“Four lifeless bodies of unidentified persons were recovered at the scene. The immediate deployment of detachments of policemen and teams of conventional policemen to the scene by Tuesday Assayomo, the Commissioner of Police, prevented escalation and killings of more people,” said the police.

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The police also said that the four unidentified dead bodies retrieved had been deposited in the morgue of the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital and the injured taken to the hospital in Ajase-Ipo for medical attention.

Okasanmi also stated that normalcy had returned to the area, and that policemen were at the scene to prevent further breakdown of law and order.

He said the Ilorin–Omu-Aran highway was now free as the road had been cleared and every obstruction removed.