Task Force nabs 11 NURTW members over Ogba mayhem

Lagos State Task Force said it arrested 11 members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) over the weekend for causing mayhem around Yaya-Abatan Garage at Ogba area of the state, while it recovered from them dangerous weapons, including axes, diggers, broken bottles and cutlasses in connection with the mayhem.

The agency, who said the exercise was carried out by its enforcement team, however, warned all members of the NURTW across the state to always conduct their activities in a peaceful manner as anyone caught fomenting trouble would be severely dealt with in accordance with the law.

It also disclosed that its operatives, who were on night patrol at Oshodi, have nabbed two persons for allegedly stealing a tricycle at Ifo area of Ogun State.

Chairman of the agency, CSP Olayinka Egbeyemi, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Lagos, saying a preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects, Sodiq Sulaiman and Saidi Ibrahim, stole the tricycle with registration No JJJ-706-QF from where the owner parked it on the road lay-by at Ifo area of Ogun State.

“It was after they refused to stop that our officers ran after them before they were caught at Cappa after abandoning the tricycle on the road,” Egbeyemi said.

The Task Force chairman urged residents to be careful and take proper care of their belongings, hinting that officers of the agency have been deployed during the “Ember Months” to strategic locations across the state to protect life and properties of the citizenry.

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Egbeyemi further said all arrested suspects in respect of the Ogba mayhem had been immediately charged to court to serve as a deterrent to other union members who might want to disturb the peace in the state, adding that the two who were arrested in connection with the stolen tricycle would immediately be charged to court for prosecutions.

According to the statement, one of the suspects in relation to stolen tricycle otherwise known as Keke Marwa, Sodiq Sulaiman, an ex-convict, confessed that the tricycle was stolen at Ifo area of Ogun State and was being taken to one ‘Mallo’ at Idi-Oro for sale at an agreed sum of N40,000 before they were arrested at Oshodi by operatives of the Task Force.

According to him, “I was just released from Kirikiri prison last month where I spent seven months for not being able to produce a commercial tricycle given to me on hire purchase by the owner.

“I was trained as a tricycle mechanic for four years at Abekoko area of Oyo State before I came to Lagos in the year 2017 and started stealing phones, bags including tricycles with one Saheed Ibrahim whom I met at ‘Akala’ area of Mushin.”

The second arrested suspect, Saheed Ibrahim, a bricklayer, revealed that before both of them started stealing tricycles, they specialised in using motorcycles to rob innocent members of the public of their valuable items at night.

“We had stolen and sold more than 55 phones, jewellery, laptops and seven tricycles to one ‘Mallo’ at Idi-Oro area of Mushin. We sold all our stolen items to ‘Mallo’ and others at Ido-Oro and Akala area of Mushin,” he said.