How NURTW’s Oluomo overpowered taskforce chairman
Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
August 24, 2015 – Not less than 200 hoodlums were on Sunday arrested by the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation and Special Offences as part of efforts to clean up the area and reduce menace of crime in the area. One of the officials attacked during the exercise however died few minutes later in a Lagos hospital.
But in a dramatic twist to the grand clean-up exercise, a phone call credited to the state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, allegedly stopped the operation.
We gathered that men of the taskforce stormed the popular commercial and transit hub in Lagos at 2 am, to begin demolition of illegal stalls, shops extensions and demarcation beyond the approved limit.
Chairman of the taskforce, Superintendent Olubukola Abe, led his men from Bolade end of Oshodi, inwards Charity on Lagos-Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, clearing wooden stalls and metal kiosks extensions in sight. Other streets like Oshodi road, Bolade, Suwebu Ajala, Ireti Oluwa and Kunle Akinosi Street were also visited in the clean-up exercise.
According to an eye witness, members of the taskforce stormed Oshodi in commando style and went after the hoodlums that were taking shelter around kiosks and stalls.
Sources among the officials said it was amid the “hoodlums’ attack” that one of the taskforce drivers, was mobbed and stabbed severally. News reached his colleagues at 9 o’clock that he had passed on in hospital. The exercise, at dawn, attracted a horde of spectators and traders, all watching helplessly as bulldozers pulled down their stalls.
The cleanup exercise came after governor Akinwunmi Ambode and state officials visited Oshodi last Wednesday, to see things for themselves. Ambode was in the market for 20 minutes taking stock of goings-on.
It was also gathered that the taskforce had engaged the traders, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) among others in a stakeholders meeting, informing them of the exercise.
Chairman of the Taskforce, Abe, who had on assumption of office announced zero tolerance for environmental offences, said the exercise was a huge success, but Oshodi would have to be closely monitored to prevent the return of illegalities.
Abe said that the 200 suspected hoodlums were presumed innocent until the court decides their fate. “They have rights before the law and we will protect them. They will be charged to court to separate the whiff from the chaff,” Abe said.
While the exercise lasted, Abe was seen resisting audience from some members of the NURTW, who claimed ownership of the seized cars and commercial buses.
However, at 9:15am, Chairman of the NURTW, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly called MC Oluomo, standing next to Abe, was in a telephone conversation with someone he later claimed to be the state governor. The chat ended with “…thank you your Excellency sir!” and the seized vehicles were immediately released on the spot.
The development threw the whole of Oshodi into frenzy, as men of the NURTW began to sing praises of Oluomo, saying “power pass power”.
