Tokyo calls for Akala’s arrest,CP’s transfer

BY OLA AJAYI

IBADAN-ONE of the  factions of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, led by Alhaji Lateef Akinsola aka Tokyo, yesterday appeared before the Commission of Enquiry set up by Governor Abiola Ajimobi calling for the arrest and prosecution of the immediate past Governor, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala.

The faction also claimed that over 200 people lost their lives to the leadership crises in the union, even as it urged the panel to advice politicians from meddling in the affairs of the union.

Presenting its memorandum, Tokyo’s faction, represented by one Abass Aleshinloye claimed that the infiltration of politicians into the union was largely responsible for the bloodshed between factions of the union.

It said the second term agenda of the former governor Akala actually fuelled the bloody clash and alleged that some politicians in the state were penciled down for elimination due to their stance on the botched second term bid.

The faction commended the steps taken by governor Ajimobi to stop the bloodshed and said politicians should “hands off the affairs of the union and stop supporting one faction against the other to put a total end to the carnage in the state.”

It also told the panel led by Justice Olagoke Ige (rtd) to  recommend the transfer of the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Baba Adisa Bolanta, claiming that there was enough evidence to prove that allegedly indicted the former governor and others.

Aleshinloye said, “we have compiled evidence which graphically shows that the killings and destruction of property were not caused by an intra-union conflict but was mainly planned and executed by Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala. Both Late Lateef Salako a.k.a. Eleweomo and Mukaila Lamidi and Alhaji Wasiu Abubakar were only instruments in the hands of the former governor.

We maintain that neither Eleweomo nor Auxiliary had the audacity, the wherewithal or the confidence to take up arms against other members of the union as they did in the last two years if they were not backed, empowered and bankrolled by Ex-Governor Akala”.

”It is further in our evidence that the violent attacks carried out by Mukaila Lamidi and Late Eleweomo is not limited to union members but also to several politicians opposed to the second term ambition of Ex-Governor Akala.

There was failed attempts to kill Senator Lekan Balogun which Bolanta covered up.  We have evidence that Late Eleweomo died in his attempt to murder Senator Teslim Folarin.  Alhaji Lamidi Adesina cried out over an attempt to assassinate him.  His Majesty, the Alaafin of Oyo was not omitted in the list of those to be executed, it said.

Tokyo’s faction claimed it was therefore erroneous to think that the violence of the last two years is an intra-union conflict.

It stated that the public would  have opportunity to know why the faction is calling for the arrest and prosecution of ex-Governor Alao-Akala and others.