Palpable tension enveloped some parts of Abeokuta, Ogun State, on Monday, when secondary school students from two public schools clashed after two of their colleagues reportedly died during a gambling competition.
The students from the Baptist Boys High School (BBHS), Saje and Ilugun High School in Elega engaged one another in a violent clash which lasted for several hours.
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Our correspondent gathered students of the two schools had last week played in a gamble which favoured the BBHS students.
It was further gathered that the gambling degenerated into a conflict, wherein two BBHS students were allegedly stabbed to death.
Miffed by the development, the students of BBHS on Monday invaded the Ilugun High School with various dangerous weapons, including guns, cutlasses, broken bottles and assorted charms to avenge the death of their colleagues allegedly stabbed to death in the previous week.
The incidents paralysed commercial activities and vehicular movements in some parts of the state capital.
Shop owners, who had earlier opened for businesses, also hurriedly closed down and scampered for safety, while vehicles and commuters also deserted the area for fear of being affected by the incident.
An eyewitness told our correspondent that the students shot sporadically in different directions and chanted anti-management songs to warn the principal and teachers of the school to stay off.
One of the shop owners in the area blamed the students’ rampage on the death of their colleagues as a result of the conflict that followed gambling between the two groups of students.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident on Monday.
He, however, said that the command had deployed security operatives to the area to restore sanity.
