It was gathered that the suspects who brandished harmful objects such as machetes, steels and broken bottles, threw the market into total confusion around 10am as  those who had come for early morning shopping fled the scene.

Post-Office is usually known for Sunday business activities especially by those who trade in used clothing materials, foot-wears and bags, among others.

Also motorists, commuters, pedestrians and shop owners ran for dear lives as suspected thugs engaged in a free for all.

The Herald learnt that a number of them had barely left when another set of hoodlums arrived and demanded for their own land charge ‘owo ile’ or be ready to see the worst.

A source told our correspondent that the first syndicate whose number could not be immediately ascertained, forced the marketers to cough out some amount of money before departing the scene.

However, a jewelry seller in the area told The Herald that some miscreants from a particular section of Ilorin had been extorting money from the marketers for sometime now under the guise of land charge, but hoodlums around Post-Office garage wanted to resist the former when the fracas ensued.

The source said, “Some hoodlums from a section of Ilorin used to come here to extort money from the used clothes marketers. This has been on for sometime now. They are usually armed with dangerous weapons which they use to intimidate anyone who refuses them

“But this morning (yesterday), they came and after collecting money from the marketers, some hoodlums around the garage here (Post-Office) resisted them and that was how the fight started. Not long the fracas occurred that one person was wounded with an object. Although we didn’t wait till the end of the pandemonium, but we were told that the arrival of policemen quelled it”.

Our correspondent reliably gathered that the timely arrival of a combined team of policemen, who shot tear-gass into the air, saved the situation from degenerating into a bloody day.

It was also learnt that the suspects, upon arrival of the armed policemen, refused to vacate the scene, until one of them was allegedly shot in the leg.

The Herald was informed that the shot suspect was later whisked away by the police in a Hilux van.

Although around 11:20am when our correspondent visited the scene, normalcy has returned with people engaging in their usual activities, but uneasy calm was still observed.

When reached on a mobile phone, the spokesperson of the state police command, Mr Okasanmi Ajayi, confirmed the incident, but said no arrest has been made