Oyo NURTW chieftain arrested with military, police uniforms; weapons

A team of Operation Burst comprising  operatives from the Nigerian Army, Department of State Services and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps has arrested the suspended chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Saki inter- state branch, Alhaji Kazeem Aderibigbe popularly known as Kazeem Iwo, over an alleged illegal possession of arms, ammunition and weeds suspected to be marijuana.

Sunday Tribune learnt that the NURTW chairman was arrested at about 2:00a.m. on Saturday at his residence, Challenge Area, Saki, alongside his personal guard, Mr. Akeem Kolapo a.k.a. Stainless, his night guard, Mr. Nasiru Oyebisi and the NURTW Ajegunle motor park cleaner, Mr. Ibrahim Olubuse.

Items recovered from Aderibigbe’s residence included one single barrel gun, a locally-made pistol, a cutlass, cartridges, wraps of marijuana, a number of syringes and needles, as well as a military cardigan and a police camouflage uniform.

Parading the suspects before newsmen at Operation Burst’s office along Oje-Owode road, Saki, the Commanding Officer of 244 Recce Battalion, Asabari Barracks, Saki, Major Ibrahim Mohammed, said that the operation was as a result of intelligence reports received that the Kazeem Iwo led-faction of NURTW was threatening to cause mayhem in Saki following his removal by the local government security committee headed by the council chairman, Mr Kareem Kasali Adegoke.

It was gathered that the suspects had been taken to Operation Burst’s headquarters in Ibadan for further investigation.

Sunday Tribune’s findings revealed that the local government had asked Aderibigbe to move the NURTW’s motor park from Ajegunle area to another place allocated to it, but he had refused to do so, leading to the take-over of the new park by another faction of the union.