No fewer than 10 policemen were injured while attempting to arrest members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers at Diamond Hotel, Alakia Isebo, Ibadan, Oyo State.
SaharaReporters gathered that Lamidi Mukaila popularly called ‘Auxiliary’, who is chairman of the NURTW in the state, is the owner of the hotel.
According to a source, Mukaila had ordered his men to shoot at any officer, who tries to make an arrest in his hotel.
The officers, who are currently admitted at a hospital, had visited the hotel to make an arrest but due to Mukaila’s orders, the men immediately attacked the officers, overpowered them and seized their guns.
Meanwhile, a source in the camp of the NURTW told SaharaReporters that the AK-47 rifles the road workers seized from the police were currently with one of the auxiliary boys simply identified as Adebowale Abiodun at Akure Park, Ibadan.
The source said, “There is one beer parlour close to the auxiliary’s hotel. The police were informed that there were armed robbers were being harboured at the spot. So, the police were on the trail of the robbers when the auxiliary boys sighted the officers and opened fire on them. They stabbed the officers like bush meat.”
He added that Auxillary had been fingered in many killings and violence in the state in recent times.
SaharaReporters also gathered three soldiers of the Nigerian Army were mobilised to guard the hotel.
In 2014, Auxiliary was arrested for gun-running and some violent crimes in the Alakia Isebo area.
During his days as NURTW chairman, the suspect was alleged to have been involved in political crises and killings in Ibadan.
He was paraded at the Lagos Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, by the state Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko in 2014.
He was further sentenced to six years imprisonment along with Saidi Kareem, Abu Kareem and Kazeem Kayode by Justice Eni Esan of the Oyo State High Court sitting in Ibadan.
His release was facilitated by the current governor of the state, Seyi Makinde, in the build up to the 2019 general elections.
