The Lagos State Police Command yesterday said it arrested six suspected hoodlums responsible for the unrest in the Obalende area of the state.
There were gunshots yesterday morning when two rival transport unions –National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RETAN) –clashed in Obalende.
But the state police spokesperson, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, in a statement hours after the incident, said normalcy has been restored to the area.
He also said the leaders of the warring unions have been invited for interrogation.
Adejobi said, “The Command has deployed resources to disperse and suppress the hoodlums fomenting troubles at Obalende area of Lagos State. Normalcy has been restored to the area.
“Based on preliminary findings, the crisis, that occurred today Thursday 11th February 2021, was between transport unions in the area and no life was lost.
“Six suspected hoodlums have been arrested and handed over to state CID, Panti, Yaba for discreet investigation”.
Adejobi disclosed that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Hakeem Odumosu, has warned that the command will not condone any act of lawlessness and criminality in the state.
According to him, the commissioner has however directed the area commander Area A, Lion Building, ACP Bode Ojajuni, to intensify efforts on flushing the hoodlums out of the area and on the Lagos Island in general, with the available recourses deployed to the area command.
“The leaders of transport unions in the area, however, have been invited for interrogation and further actions.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Jimoh Buhari, the spokesman for the Lagos State Chairman of the NURTW, Mr. Musiliu Akinsanya, aka MC Oluomo, has said men of a rival union in the state attacked NURTW officials in the Obalende area in a bid to take over the park.
According to him, the members of a rival union, the RETAN, stormed NURTW park in Obalende yesterday morning with weapons in order to take over toll collection at the park.
“Each of the unions has its own garage that it is operating within. But Road Employee union whose members put on yellow uniform went to attack our men who put on a white and green uniform.
“We have like three unions in Lagos but there are two major unions –NURTW and RTEAN.
“One of them was caught and handed over to the police and he said it was the chairman of RTEAN, Musa Mohammed, who sent them to take over NURTW garage at Obalende.”
