Today’s brutal murder of the chairman of the Oyo state branch of the National Union of Road Transport workers (NURTW), Abdul Lateef Salako ( a.ka. Eleweomo) has been linked to the request of the leadership of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) for fresh congresses in the state.
Today’s brutal murder of the chairman of the Oyo state branch of the National Union of Road Transport workers (NURTW), Abdul Lateef Salako ( a.ka. Eleweomo) has been linked to the request of the leadership of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) for fresh congresses in the state.
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The deceased is a supporter of Governor Alao-Akala who was pushed into a disadvantaged position by the request of the PDP leadership. Trouble started on Christmas eve when the PDP national chairman, Okwesilieze Nwodo, called Akala to request an "urgent meeting" for Monday December 27th 2010 at the Abuja office of the party. The PDP had dissolved the state executive about the same time, and ordered the congresses to elect new state executives.
Nwodo had hoped to use the meeting to resolve the differences between the bitter rivals, but Akala rebuffed his summons, telling him that he was bigger than the party chair in the hierarchy of the party. Akala had always suspected that the PDP chair ‘s support for Senator Teslim Folarin candidature for the 2011 gubernatorial race. Akala has accused Folarin of using his capacity as Senate Majority leader to dissolve the state exec and wrest control of the party machinery from him. Trouble started when “Eleweomo” showed up at the ward congress, which was being attended by Senator Teslim Folarin (Oyo Central constituency). The Senator, who spoke to SaharaReporters, said he had been warned not to appear at the ward congress because of Eleweomo's presence and that security reports showed that there were plans to assassinate him during the session. He said he called the Commissioner of Police in the state who provided security for him yesterday. He said he further received stern warnings from his friends earlier today that he was going to be killed today at the local government congress. According to him, calls he made to the Commissioner of Police were not promising, so he called the Director of the State Security Services in the state, who promised him he would get in touch with the police commissioner. However, while Senator Folarin was reportedly waiting to hear from the CP, he received a call from his advance team on site that his supporters were under serious attack by armed thugs brought to the venue by Eleweomo to the venue.
SaharaReporters learnt that Eleweomo and other delegates loyal to Akala had regained control of the ward executive at yesterday's congress and that Eleweomo was elected as an LGA "delegate" to represent Senator Folarin’s LGA tomorrow at the Liberty stadium venue of the state congress. Senator Folarin said he rushed to the venue of the congress in sympathy with his supporters who had been under attack. Some sources said several of them were injured, while another witness said two of the Senator’s supporters were killed. Senator Folarin reportedly drove to the venue with a convoy of personal security and police. He was reportedly accompanied by a controversial unionist, Abudl Lateef Akinsola Oloruntoki (a.k.a. Tokyo), but the senator denied it. Both Tokyo and Eleweomo had been involved in a fierce rivalry to the leadership of the NURTW in the state that has been in court and led to lots of violence in the state. Police sources said Senator Folarin shot his way through to the venue and that a mobile police officer in his convoy shot and killed Mr. Eleweomo, but the Senator said he never saw Eleweomo upon arrival. He claimed he learnt from another source that Eleweomo was already dead before his arrival.
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SaharaReporters tried to reach the CP of Oyo state who has already filed an "incident report" with the Inspector General of Police, but he did not respond to our calls . Eleweomo's body was reportedly taken to the morgue. In the circumstances, Senator Folarin told SaharaReporters it is unlikely that the state congress will take place at the Liberty Stadium tomorrow, but a press statement issued from Alao-Akala’s office today stated that the state congress will go ahead as planned.
Oyo state has a troubled history of political violence; typically involving illiterates and Motor Park touts. In recent times, the state was famously under the command of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, the Garrison commander of Oyo politics who died last year.
Two months ago, as the crisis over the Oyo NURTW raged on, an Ibadan couple was murdered in their own home in front of their three young children. Tokyo alleged to the press that the assailants were Segun Aso-Rock and Fatai Mojara, and that they were members of the Eleweomo faction of the NURTW.
About 15 vehicles were destroyed during today’s crisis; those include that of Alhaji Tunde Olayiwola a caretaker chairmain of Ona-ara LGA recently appointed by Governor Akala. Some police patrol vehicles including that of the divisional police officer in the area were also damaged.
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