Ilorin — Hell was let loose on Wednesday evening in Ilorin, when anti-riot policemen and members of the Nigerian Security Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) engaged themselves in a battle for supremacy.

About six officials of the Civil Defence Corps werehospitalised at the end of the fracas..

The incident, which happened in front of the Goverment Day Secondary School, saw the anti riot policemen and the Civil Defence Corps officials engage themselves in a free-for-all, which later spread to the Federal Secretariat where the office of the Civil Defence Corps is located.

The crisis started when a mechanic allegedly resisted arrest by NSCDC officials who reportedly accompanied some revenue collectors of a local government council to collect tenement rates.

However, when the mechanic could not show evidence of payment, NSCDC officials asked him to follow them to their office.

The mechanic called the police who promptly arrived the scene and questioned NSCDC officials why they should arrest the mechanic.

State Commander of the NSCDC, Mr Philip Ayuba and the Public Relations Officer, Mr Adeleke Adewale who were at the scene of the incident also sustained injuries.

Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Markus Gideon, said " it was NSCDC officials that beat a riot policeman who stopped on his way home to intervene in a disagreement between them and a police woman.

"I don't know what might have transpired between them but the riot policeman who was in uniform was going home after closing from his beat when he saw them arguing with the policewoman."

"He stopped to intervene with a view to settling the matter but instead of listening to him, the civil defense people beat him and collected his riffle." He stressed

Gideon, who alleged that the riffle was retrieved on Thursday with about nine ammunitions missing, however, confirmed that three officials of the NSCDC who allegedly took part in beating the riot policeman were being held by the police.

Also contacted in his office yesterday, the Civil Defence Corps Image-Maker Mr., Ayuba, who is nursing bruises on his right hand, said that he was not aware of what actually happened at the scene of the incident. saying that the police had arrested unspecified number of his men.