BY MAYOWA SAMUEL
The Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is under pressure to proscribe the National Union of Road Transport Workers following repeated violence by its members.
Factional members of the NURTW attacked one another on Thursday in Lagos Island, leaving many injured including traders and commuters.
The fracas, which extended to Friday, left some people dead and paralysed business activities in the area.
Two factions of the NURTW had clashed over the control of some motor parks on the Island.
The videos of the clash went viral on Friday showing the hoodlums using dangerous weapons against themselves.
While reacting to the development in a statement on Saturday, the Publicity Secretary of the Lagos State chapter of the Accord Party, Dele Oladeji, called on Sanwo-Olu to tame the members of the NURTW by proscribing the union with immediate effect.
According to Oladeji, “Again, the members of the NURTW were enmeshed in a deadly fight on Lagos Island which was reported to have resulted in the untimely death of some four youths.
“This deadly clash created a security scare, in which innocent and hardworking residents of Lagos had to scamper into shops, crevices, under tables and inside gutters for their dear lives.
“Many rushed into shops and were locked in with the shop owners, just to stay away from stray bullets or being caught up in the fracas.
“Traders were forced to shut down their businesses, which led to the loss of transactions running into billions of naira.
“We advise the Lagos State governor to, with immediate effect, proscribe the NURTW for a peaceful and safe Lagos city.”
The party spokesman said that the recent violence was one too many among the members of the NURTW in Lagos State.
Oladeji said that though members of the union were always in the habit of killing themselves during such fracas, their action had always defied the security set up in Lagos State and had always created a state of insecurity among residents.
“Ask an average resident of Lagos, and they will tell you they live and commute in utter fright of these ‘union boys’ daily on the streets and roads.
“Governor Sanwo-Olu should rise up in service to residents of the state and proscribe these lawless groups for a safer Lagos State,” he added.
He said that NURTW factions were known to frequently engage in free-for-all over power tussles at different locations and parks.
However, the Lagos Command Police Public Relations Officer, Chief Superintendent of Police, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said that normalcy had returned to Idumota and its environs on Lagos Island.
He said on Saturday that policemen had arrested some members of the NURTW during a clash between them on Lagos Island on Friday.
Ajisebutu, however, did not mention how many people were arrested and where they were being detained.
He added that normalcy had returned to the Island as more operatives had been deployed there.
“The police have quelled the crisis. Sufficient facilities were deployed in the area immediately we received a distress call and normalcy was restored.
“Investigation into the crisis is ongoing,” he said.
Also, the Lagos State Government had appealed to the warring parties which it identified as members of the NURTW to stop their violent acts.
In a statement released by Gbenga Oyerinde, the Special Adviser to Governor Sanwo-Olu on Central Business Districts, he said that security operatives had been mandated to arrest and prosecute anybody breaching the peace.
