Monday 27th, February, 2006 HOME | Previous Page

Cartoon Riot Scare Hits Abuja

It was about 10 a.m. on Friday. Suddenly news spread, aided by mobile telephones, that the Nyanya/Mararaba, North-East outskirt Abuja, some 15 kilometres away from the city centre, had been engulfed in a religious riot.

As the Nyanya and Mararaba streets became increasingly deserted, and parents and guardians went to withdraw their wards from school, there was apprehension in Abuja.

As the story spread through the federal capital city, heightening the tension that was already hanging over the city, people gathered in groups to discuss not just the cartoon riots, but the tension over the public hearings across the nation, there was uncertainty over what could happen as the faithful returned from Jumat prayers, which had been cancelled in Bauchi town.

In the end, the alarm was false. An eyewitness, a driver, told Daily Independent that a group of armed robbers had traced somebody from a bank to Nyanya bus stop.

As the man who had withdrawn money from a bank attempted to board a bus, the money was forcibly taken from him. As the robbers shot into the air to disperse the crowd that was closing in on them, people began to scatter, bearing the news as they scampered for safety that a riot had started and the gunshots must have come from the police who attempted to stop the rioters.