LAGOS, Nigeria - At least one man was killed and a police officer wounded in Nigeria's commercial capital Lagos when police clashed with a banned ethnic militia, police said on Wednesday.
Newspapers reported a higher death toll and said Tuesday's clashes between police and the ethnic-Yoruba Oodua People's Congress (OPC) took place in more than one district of the city.
OPC was blamed for an explosion of ethnic violence in Lagos last October which killed over 100 people. Authorities banned the group but have dropped charges against its leader, Frederick Fasehun.
Deputy Commissioner of Police Emannuel Adebayo told Reuters the unrest started when police tried to question Fasehun about a meeting he was allegedly holding with some 400 OPC members.
"They were holding a meeting at Ikotun-Egbe (district). This is a proscribed organisation," Adebayo said.
"As police officers were chatting with Fasehun, other members of the OPC started to attack," he said. "One police officer suffered a head injury and his rifle was taken away. One of the attackers was killed."
There was no independent account of the incident, and Lagos was calm on Wednesday.
The disturbances were the first major threat to public order in the city of over 10 million people since last October's bloodshed capped a turbulent year of ethnic or religious clashes across the country.
President Olusegun Obasanjo's government has been grappling with ethnic tensions in different corners of Nigeria since the end of 15 years of military dictatorship in 1999 released pent up grievances.
Adebayo said no arrests were made after Tuesday's unrest as police wanted to maintain the fragile peace in Lagos.
06:57 02-28-01
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