Oyo state is always in the news for deaths and destruction resulting from motor park touts and their leadership tussles. Why is this so?

Man, wife killed in fresh Oyo NURTW crisis
From YINKA FABOWALE, Ibadan
Wednesday, October 13, 2010


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For the factionalised Oyo State council of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) vendetta appears to be the lingo, as opposing camps now go after and kill ‘sworn-enemies’ in their homes. The protracted “war” got messier, with the gruesome killing on Sunday of a member of one of the feuding factions and his wife.

Both camps are, however, trading blames and passing responsibility for the murder.
Olumide Oyelowo, identified as a park manager and loyalist of Alhaji Lateef Salako (Elewe Omo), was reportedly attacked and shot dead in the presence of his wife and three kids.
In the early hours of Sunday, at his rented apartment at Alalubosa, Molade area of Ibadan, precisely around 2am, by suspected members of the union.

Daily Sun learnt that his wife, Yetunde, was similarly shot after she reportedly identified one of the assailants and called him by his name “… you also followed them’’, she was said to have cried in alarm before she was shot below the rib.
The duo was left in the pool of their blood while the three children, including a three-month-old baby cried over the lifeless bodies of their parents.

Speaking to reporters over the incident, the reinstated Chairman of the union, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (a.k.a. Tokyo) said Oyelowo was killed because he was seen as spying for and leaking secrets of the Elewe Omo’s group to his camp.
Tokyo said: “They saw in him a traitor who should not be spared for having leaked their tactics and plans in the series of past attacks on the union secretariat at Olomi here. They saw it as the handiwork of Oyelowo and believed he must pay dearly for it.

This is their thinking and such a barbaric act is not only ungodly but also condemnable; killing fellow human being you cannot create yourself,”
He called on the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, to order full blown investigation into the murders.
Tokyo who named one Segun and Fatai as part of the gang that carried out the attack alleged that the duo belonged to a faction led by the ousted chairman of the union, Salako.

But Elewe Omo in a phone chat with newsmen described Tokyo’s accusation as unfounded, wondering how he or any other member of his camp could ever contemplate killing a group member for no just cause.
Instead, he said the Tokyo camp should be held responsible for the killing.

“Alhaji Tokyo, we got to know it on good authority had been boasting that when he kills our men one by one, we will not have anybody to call members of our own and you will recall that, just about four weeks ago, Tokyo’s men kidnapped three of my supporters and later killed them, before we went there to carry their corpses and took them to the deputy-governor of the state and later to the office of the Commissioner of Police at Eleyele,” he said.

Absolving the two suspects named by Tokyo of any complicity in the killing, Salako called on President Goodluck Jonathan, IGP and Oyo State Police Commissioner, Baba Adisa Bolanta to set up probe panel to investigate the matter so as to bring the culprits to book.
He said policemen at the nearby Adenubi Police Station later arrested a driver of an abandoned vehicle with Ogun State registration number in connection with the crime.

Contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Bisi Okuwobi confirmed the story saying the police at Alakia Police Station had on a tip off by a resident that there were gun shot in the area moved in but the deed was done.
She said the three suspects including the driver of a commercial vehicle accosted and arrested in the area at 2a.m shortly after the incident on the fateful day have been detained by the police and were undergoing interrogation.

Okuwobi added that the two suspects mentioned in connection with the crime and allegedly identified by the slain wife of the NURTW member were on the run.
“When our detectives went to their homes, they had bolted away. But, they can run but not forever. We shall surely catch up with them”. the police image maker said, saying investigation into the matter was on.