BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN—IT was another bloody day in Ibadan yesterday as members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, in Oyo State and the state police command clashed when the latter led a demolition team to the secretariat of the union at Olomi.
The melee left on its trail sorrow and pains as two members of the union were allegedly felled by police bullets, while several others sustained various degrees of injuries. Names of the dead were given; as Nurudeen Azeez and Ismaila Agbojo. Their corpses have been taken to a hospital at Labo area of Ibadan.
As a result of the bloody clash, the Lagos-Ibadan expressway was blocked with bonfire and damaged vehicles. Also other roads leading to the secretariat of the union were blocked to prevent the state government and the police from having any access to the building.
During the gun duel that ensued between the police and the union members, there was stampede as some motorists, residents in the area and road users travelling on the ever busy Lagos-Ibadan road and the flyover made u-turns. The shoot-out reportedly lasted more than two hours.
The stiff resistance of the members forced 5 Armoured Personnel Carriers, 20 Hillux Police vans and policemen numbering about 300 to retreat.
When Vanguard got to the scene of the crisis yesterday, two blood-stained dead bodies of the union members were seen in a make-shift stall. Some of the vehicles set ablaze or vandalized included a towing-truck that reportedly towed the bull dozer to the scene. Broken bottles and burning tyres littered the road that leads to Akanran Village.
Hundreds of the union members loyal to Tokyo had taken possession of the secretariat with dangerous weapons like cutlasses and clubs to prevent themselves.
At the time of filing this report, tension still hung in the air as the members of the union claimed the policemen were still coming back.
They claimed that a leader of the union was seen wearing police uniform with bullet proof jacket shot at them too. Used tear gas canisters littered the place with smoke oozing from the burnt vehicles.
Despite the court order given by Justice Jonathan Shakarho restraining Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, Ministry of Survey, Environment or any other person from the State Government from carrying out any demolition pending the determination of the case, the governor still
The order for the demolition of the secretariat had been given by Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala who did not hide his disdain for the faction of the court-reinstated Chairman of the union, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola a.k.a Tokyo.
Governor Akala justified the demolition order saying that due to incessant crises and violence by members of the union, it would be unsafe for the residents in the area if the building of the union was left in the densely-populated area.
Vanguard gathered that caution was thrown to the winds when hundreds of policemen, 5 APC and others vehicles arrived the place around 8.20am firing tear gas to scare the union members who were at the secretariat keeping surveillance.
One of the loyalists of Tokyo, Alhaji Yunus Akintunde who spoke with Vanguard said, “they(police) came around 8.20am with 5 APCs, 20 Hilux vans. About 34 vehicles conveyed them here. When they came, they fired some tear gas canisters and shooting sporadically. They killed two of our men and another one is on danger list”. We were not armed.
We were throwing stones and bottles to resist them. Other residents who saw that that Akala just wanted to cheat us joined us in repelling them”.
“The Federal Government should to leave us alone and stop killing us. We don’t know why he is dabbling into NURTW in the state. We got an order from a Federal High Court restraining them from demolishing this secretariat, yet he is still troubling us”.
Some of them were saying this “is our only means of livelihood. We will fight it out with the last drop of our blood”.
Though, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Baba Adisa Bolanta denied being at the spot of the violence, angry-looking union members insisted he and one of the leaders of the union, Auxiliary who is a right hand man of the governor led the attack on the members of the union.
When speaking with newsmen on phone yesterday, the Police Commissioner said no policeman was with the demolition team initially, but we had to dispatched men there to prevent the crisis from escalating.
He also said those killed were not felled by the police adding that their colleagues might have killed them during the melee.
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Two dead, others injured as Police, NURTW clash in Ibadan