Gang War Averted At Ogba

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What would have resulted in loss of lives and destruction of properties was averted on Monday 29 August, 2011 at Ogba, Lagos,Southwest Nigeria, when armed men led by a man alleged to be under the protection of a top member of the Lagos State branch of National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, stormed Shorimade Street in the area with two Hummer SUVs with special number plates marked Yen Yen Yen alongside two LT200 commuter buses filled with thugs in a bid to attack a rival member of the union popularly known as Warrior.

Commercial and domestic activities were paralysed during the 30-minute invasion as the thugs blocked the entry and exit points of the street in search of Warrior. Members of the two groups in the transportation sector are said to have been locked in a supremacy contest.

According to an eyewitness who pleaded anonymity, when the gang stormed the street, “I locked my shop and took my three children to the toilet side of our house because I remembered that this was just the same thing we read in the news that happened in Ibadan and the recent one in Mushin. Why do they want to turn our peaceful street to a battle field now? The guy was just calling on the other man to come out of his hiding while his thugs were walking up and down the street. The government should please call them to order now that it hasn’t gotten out of hand.”

Speaking with P.M.NEWS, a top official of the NURTW simply identified as Omoregie said this attempt on the lives of some members of the union in the last two weeks has now become more serious as the leader of the group has been boasting loudly that nobody, even the Police in Ogba, can stop him from doing anything he wishes to do.

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“We are afraid because we are peaceful people, and we don’t want to confront thugs that go with machetes, guns and faeces. Just last week, some of our members were brutalised by this same man and the police couldn’t do a thing.

“The attack was repeated penultimate week at Ogba when the monthly sanitation was taking place, and this same man with his gang drove round Ogba and nobody raised an objection,” Omoregie lamented.

Meanwhile, residents of Shorimade Street have appealed to the government, especially the Commissioner for Transportation, Mr Kayode Opeifa, to direct the police authorities to warn the man and his gang not to turn the street into a theatre of war over a disagreement involving their union.

—Daniels Ekugo

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