Nigeria Content Online

About 83 vehicles
were destroyed on Wednesday as members of the two factions of the Oyo
State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW)
engaged one another in hot battle in the wee hours of the day.

The vehicles, which included exotic cars and commercial vehicles, were either burnt or vandalised by the rampaging hoodlums.

An eyewitness told
NEXT that the fracas started around 1am when sporadic shooting started
within the neighbourhood of the Academy-Olomi state secretariat of the
union. Buildings within the area also fell victims of the shooting, as
some of them were riddled with bullets, while the damaged vehicles were
either shot at or matcheted.

Like a fresh war
scene, the adjoining streets in the area were littered with hundreds of
disused cartridges and carcasses of the damaged vehicles.

The duel, which
reportedly lasted for about three hours, saw the assailants enter the
union’s secretariat where furniture and other valuable equipment were
destroyed. The assailants shot their ways into the building after
destroying a black Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) belonging to Lateef
Akinsola (aka Tokyo), recently reinstated chairman of the union, who
was suspected to be the target of the attack.

Mr. Akinsola was said to have narrowly escaped being killed as he left the building before the attackers gained entrance.

Scores injured
during the fight have been hospitalised at an undisclosed hospital in
Ibadan, where they are believed to be safe from arrest or possible
further attack.

Lekan Aleshinloye,
a factional secretary of the union, told journalists in Ibadan that
members loyal to Tokyo had the premonition of the attack, adding that
the information informed the decision of some of them to keep vigil at
the office.

He said the men
stationed at the office premises confronted the assailants as soon as
sporadic shootings started. He added that the men retreated when they
saw that the assailants were led by policemen identified as men from
the state’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

He claimed that
besides the 15 vehicles that conveyed them to the scene, the assailants
convoy was backed with a police Armoured Personnel Carrier.

Blameless police

The state police
command, however, denied any culpability in the matter. Baba Adisa
Bolanta, state commissioner of police, said his men were only drafted
to the scene to restore peace when information on breakdown of law and
order in the area were reported to the police. He said the police had
arrested two suspects in connection with the incident.

Abiodun Ige, the
area commander in charge of Iyaganku, led a combined team of armed
policemen and men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps to
the troubled area at about 11am to assess the extent of damages.

Mr. Ige came in company of all the divisional police officers in charge of the police divisions in the area command.

Both Tokyo and
Lateef Salako (aka Elewe-Omo), the two proverbial elephants in the
fight, could not be reached on phone yesterday as their mobile phones
were said to have been switched off.

A statement by the
state police command, signed by its spokesperson, Okuwobi Olabisi, said
it has recovered three dead bodies. It said the bodies were brought to
the police headquarters by Eleweomo at about 12 noon yesterday.

“The command wants to use this medium to assure good members of the
public of their safety in view of the crisis rocking the state NURTW.
Troublemakers, no matter how highly placed in the society and their
foot soldiers, are by this medium warned to desist forthwith as the
command has deployed both human and material logistics needed to tackle
their activities headlong,” she said.