…From Dele Ogunyemi, Ibadan…
The controversial factional Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi (a.k.a Auxiliary), who has been declared wanted by the Oyo State Police Command since 2010 is now in the net of the security operatives in Lagos.
Reliable sources told our correspondent that ‘Auxiliary’ was nabbed in his Olodo, Ibadan residence on Saturday morning by Police detectives from Ikeja, Lagos.
Consequently, ‘Auxiliary’ was whisked away to Lagos, even without contacting the Oyo State Police Command, sources said.
It will be recalled that ‘Auxiliary’ alongside his rival, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola. (a.k.a. Tokyo), had been declared wanted by the Police following the bloody gun attack on many innocent travellers at the Iwo Road, Ibadan motor garage on June 4, 2011 in which the National President, Nigerian Medical Students Association, Mallam Bala Shanono, a final year medical student of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and others were brutally murdered.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for Oyo state Police Command, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor (SP) told inquisitive journalists that the command was not aware of Auxiliary’s arrest saying, “we don’t have that information”.
However, when the news of arrest of Auxiliary was broken in Ibadan, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and High Chief of Ibadanland, Senator Lekan Balogun, remarked that the arrest was political and allegedly orchestrated among the Oyo State Governor, Senator Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi, the Police commissioner for the state command, Mr Mohammed Indabawa, and the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
Chief Balogun retorted: “Auxiliary was picked up at his Olodo residential area in Ibadan. He was immediately driven away to Ikeja in Lagos. But why Ikeja? Don’t we have SARS in Oyo State? It is a connivance among Tinubu, Ajimobi and the Oyo state police commissioner ahead of next year’s election. They see him as a threat to them in the 2015 election. That is why they want to get him out of circulation. The man is sick and is likely to die in the police custody if his case is not addressed on time. His NURTW supporters had been driven away from many motor garages. Meanwhile, Auxiliary and Tokyo at certain times been taken to the Inspector General of Police in Abuja by Oloye Jumoke Akinjide (FCT Minister) and the duo were later set free. Why the arrest now? And why is the Oyo state police command not of the knowledge of Auxiliary’s arrest?”