31st December, 2010
By Gbenro Adesina/Ibadan
Following yesterday’s murder of the National Union of Road Transport Workers NURTW chairman, Mr. Lateef Salako a.k.a. Eleweomo at Akanran in Ona Ara Council Area of Oyo State, security was beefed up today at the Liberty Stadium, the venue of PDP’s state congress where new state executives for the party will be elected.
A combined team of security operatives which include the police, the State Security Service, SSS and others were seen at the entrance of the stadium frisking everybody before they were allowed entry.
They also checked thoroughly all cars with anti-bomb equipment before they allowed them into the stadium.
Five people have already been arrested by the police for being in possession of charms and other dangerous weapons.
In a telephone chat with a chieftain of the PDP, Senator Lekan Balogun, who is also an Ibadan high chief, he said the progressives within the party will not attend the congress, saying that it was a one-man show by Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala to return all the illegal party executives back into office.
Commiserating with the family of slain Eleweomo, Senator Balogun said, “Eleweomo saw death and ran into its trap. What was he looking for at Ona Ara Local Government when he was an NURTW man which had been proscribed? He was supposed not to be there. But he was there because Akala wanted him to be there to intimidate and harass people.â€
Balogun said it was wrong for the police, Akala or any other person to have linked the Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin, with the murder of Eleweomo.
He stressed that the invitation was a way of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
However, a member of the House of Representatives in Oyo State, Hon. Segun Akinloye, Oyo State Commissioner for Information, Alhaja Risikatu Alabi and the PDP Caretaker Committee Chairman in the state, Mr. Taofeek Tunde Olayiwola, have condemned the gruesome murder of Eleweomo.
They called for a thorough investigation of the murder.
Akinloye said, “I will not want to castigate anybody. But the police should investigate it thoroughly to bring out the facts of the murder. It is a sad and ridiculous development.â€
Reacting, Alhaja Alabi said the state government was “disappointed that a highly placed individual in Oyo State like Senator Folarin will be at the forefront of such an incident. This matter must be investigated and the perpetrators brought to book.â€
Olayiwola urged the press to report facts about the murder, alleging that Teslim Folarin led hoodlums loaded in about 10 buses belonging to the factional NURTW chairman, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola, a.k.a. Tokyo to cause mayhem at the congress.
Meanwhile, the congress slated for this morning was yet to commence as at noon. But the state commissioners, loyalists of Governor Akala in the PDP and newsmen are already at the venue.
Feelers from the PDP indicated that the congress will likely return the Dejo Afolabi-led PDP executive into office while the opposition led by Balogun have vowed not to accept the result of the congress.
