Lest we forget Oyo’s peculiar mess

By Ajibola Adekanmi

PEACE and security are the bedrocks of development in any society. They are essential ingredients for a harmonious existence of the people. And as enshrined in the country’s 1999 Constitution, “the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Thus, it amounts to a breach of the constitution for any government to treat peace and security with levity.

Auwal Shanono was the National President of the Nigerian Medical Students Association. He was a 500-level student of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, until he was murdered in a clash by rival National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) at Iwo Road, Ibadan, Oyo State, on June 5, 2011.

He was among the 20 people reportedly mowed down in the upheaval instigated by incorrigible outlaws, in one of their many supremacy battles that spanned 2004 and mid-2011.

Oyo State was literally on tenterhooks before 2011, judging by a 2014 report by the state Police Command, which revealed that 121 people were murdered across the state before May 29, 2011.

The period was also said to have recorded 1,119 grievous harm and injuries; 261 armed robbery, 35 arson and eight bank robberies. It was a period when the rule of the brawn superseded the rule of law, where motorparks gangsters, who hobnobbed with fascist political leaders within and beyond the state, unleashed terror on the people. Mere mention of the names of these leviathan NURTW kingpins sent shivers down the spines of even the stone-hearted.

Anytime the likes of the late Eleweomo (who was brutally murdered during the regime of Adebayo Alao Akala), Auxilliary and Tokyo decided to bare their fangs, they left in their trails death, broken limbs, and ruins.

On several occasions, particularly on December 14, 2006 and May 26, 2007 the Office of the Governor and the hallowed chamber of the state House of Assembly were desecrated by roguish lawmakers and their band of thugs. It was a dark era in the history of the state when pump action guns took the place of the mace during plenary sessions, while principal officers of the Assembly armed themselves with shotguns in place of the gavel. It was a battle royale among barefaced thug-backed lawmakers. The upheaval was exacerbated by the infamous Ladoja impeachment saga.

In 2006, the Chairman of Pelly Foam, Mr. Dapo Davies, lost property worth more than N100m when venomous villains descended on the gentleman and his business premises. In the face of all these, law enforcement agencies were hopelessly confined with manacles from bringing these roughnecks to justice. At a stakeholders’ forum on June 14, 2007 an exasperated Commissioner of Police then in charge of Oyo Command, Mr. Jonathan Johnson (now a Deputy Inspector-General), revealed that the police were forced to start building new cells when the capacity of the old facility became overstretched.

Coming short of giving up on the situation, the police boss lamented: “People should give me chance to breathe. We have discussed with these people (NURTW outlaws) severally. By this meeting we want the whole world to know that we have tried our best and we are also tired of all these problems.”

In a November 24, 2010 interview published in the Vanguard newspaper, Eleweomo traced the upheaval that then pervaded the state to the leadership tussle among the NURTW kingpins.

This was the peculiar mess (apologies to the late Adegoke Adelabu) inherited by the Governor Abiola Ajimobi-led administration. In his inauguration address on May 29, 2011, the governor had identified security of lives and property as a major challenge in the state. He had said, “Political thuggery, brigandage and armed robbery have become the order of the day. Our approach to securing lives and property in the state will be holistic.”

Several people have lost their lives in Oyo State between the reign of Senator Rashidi Ladoja and Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala. The state became an Hobbesian state where life was nasty, brutish and short.

The peace that pervades the state since about three and half years ago is the talk of the town. People no longer need travel advice to traverse one part of the capital city to another, as against the recent past. It is evident that Ajimobi has brought to bear his pedigree of peace on the governance of Oyo State. It is apparent that in this election, the choice before the people of the state, as they say in Christendom, is either to go back to Egypt or forward to the Promised Land. Once a chameleon, always a chameleon. If the people of Oyo State want a return to those old gangsters’ days, they would jolly well follow the architects of violence who made Oyo State another Palestine or Syria. If they want to remain under this peaceful reign, the choice is also clear.

Adekanmi writes from Akobo, Ibadan