Eleweomo’s loyalists attack Tokyo’s filling station

At least three workers of Bus-Lakson Filling Station, said to be owned by a factional leader of the state council of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a. Tokyo), were reportedly injured during an attack on the filling station by some hoodlums on Sunday evening.

The filling station is located in Omowunmi in the Olorunsogo area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

The attackers were suspected to be members of the union loyal to Alhaji Lateef Salako (a.k.a Eleweomo) who was killed at a Peoples Democratic Party’s congress last week.

Properties valued at about N7m were also said to have been vandalised by the attackers who were said to be armed with guns, machetes and other weapons.

They were said to have invaded the filling station at about 5.30pm in a Toyota Camry car and a bus with the hope that they would meet Akinsola at the station.

Akinsola had been engaged in a running battle with the deceased Eleweomo over the leadership of the NURTW before he was killed on Thursday.

Conducting journalists round the vandalised property on Monday, the station’s Manager, Mr. Kunle Agboola, said Akinsola was the target of the attackers.

He said the attackers worked on the belief that the embattled NURTW leader always visit the station every Sunday evening.

He added that the attackers started shooting sporadically on arrival at the station while they asked one of the attendants the whereabouts of Akinsola.

The attack, he explained, lasted for about 30 minutes.

He said the matter was reported at the Idi-Aro Police Station from where policemen were drafted to secure the station.

Meanwhile, the Senate Leader, Teslim Folarin, on Monday reported at the Oyo State Police Command headquarters, Eleyele, Ibadan, in connection to the ongoing investigation into the killing of Eleweomo.

The late factional leader of the state NURTW was said to have been killed during a bloody encounter between his followers and loyalists of Folarin.

Immediately after the incident, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Baba Bolanta, said that he had invited the senator to come and state his role in the incident.

The Senator’s security aides were also invited for questioning.

Folarin, in company with some chieftains of the PDP in the state, including Senator Lekan Balogun, former PDP Deputy National Chairman (South), Alhaji Yekinni Adeojo; former Minister of Special Duties, Elder Wole Oyelese; and former Secretary to Oyo State Government , Mr. Sharafadeen Ali, reported at the police headquarters at about 9am and held a closed door meeting with Bolanta for over three hours.

At the end of the session, Folarin, still accompanied by the PDP chieftains, was led to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, where detectives investigating the killing were expected to take his statement.

Security was beefed up at the SCID. Unlike what transpired at the police headquarters, journalists were not allowed into the premises.

As at the time of filing this report at about 3.30pm, Folarin and the PDP chieftains were still at the SCID , fuelling speculation that he might be detained.

Bolanta declined to comment on the details of the closed door meeting to journalists when he was approached

But Balogun told journalists that the meeting enabled them to have a better understanding the workings of the state police command.

He said the meeting discussed at length on politics in Oyo State and last week‘s congresses of the PDP in the state, among others.

Balogun however insisted that nothing had changed in the coalition‘s position that Bolanta should be transferred out of Oyo State as the group did not have confidence in him despite the parley.

He stressed that the Coalition expected the Commissioner of Police to be objective and neutral in the handling of the rift and not be a biased umpire.

“Nothing has changed. He (Bolanta) may be a very nice person as a person but he has shown too much partisanship in the past. May be this is a new beginning. We expected the CP to be professional and objective in arbitrating all over the state without respect for anybody. The law of the land should be respected,” Balogun added.


Source:punchng.com