TheCable

A communal clash between Gbagyi natives and Hausa residents in Bwari, an Abuja suburb, has reportedly left some people dead, while many sustained injuries.

Soldiers have been deployed to quell the unrest, which residents said was initially cult-related but became ethnoreligious following the death of a native of the town.

The main market in Bwari has been burnt down while some buildings have also been torched.

Bwari often serves as an alternative road for those travelling to Kaduna via the bypass that goes around the town.

The town was recently engulfed in crisis following the turbaning of a new Hausa traditional ruler known as Sarkin Bwari who is of a different lineage from the Gbagyi people who are traditionally known with the title of Esu of Bwari.

Protests later followed the formal appointment of Awwal Musa Ijakoro, son of the late Mohammed Musa Ijakoro as the Sarkin Bwari.

The natives accused Mohammed Bello, minister of federal capital territory, and other officials of depriving the natives of their right to be the paramount rulers of the town.

They said the new Sarkin Bwari is not from the town but from a community in Niger state and he should not have been turbanned.