Child, three others drown as Yoruba, Egun clash in Lagos

Four persons are believed to have drowned, over 200 structures burnt and several residents displaced on Wednesday in Otodogbami Community, Ikate, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos when Yoruba and Egun ethnic groups clashed within the community.
Those who drowned were said to have included a child.
They were said to have drowned while trying to escape through the river behind the community during the clash.
However, the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command, Dolapo Badmos, said no one died.
Badmos said: “The effort of the police helped ensure that no death was recorded.”
The clash started on Monday between two men from the ethnic groups when one resident of Egun extraction was said to have assaulted a Yoruba indigene for beating up his fiancé.
In retaliation, the sources said that the Yorubas, armed with machetes and other weapons, attacked the community, blocking its entrance and vandalizing its shrine.
Badmos said it was a supremacy battle.
She said: “There is an Egun community mainly made up of people from Republic of Benin.
“They actually occupy illegal shanties.
“We were alerted about the breakdown of law and order in the area and immediately went to check Otodogbami community, Ikate Lekki Phase 1, where there is a fight between the Benin-Yoruba communities fighting over the supremacy in the territory.
“It’s an illegal settlement area.
“Most of the structures there are shanties and because of a protracted dispute between themselves, they set fire on their different shanties.
“The Police moved into the area to restore peace and in the process of checking the area, we discovered that there was a woman who was trapped in one of the shanties with a two-day old baby, who would have been burnt in the process.”