BY OLA AJAYI EVER since politicians in Oyo
State saw the National Union
of Road Transport Workers,
NURTW, as a veritable
instrument for winning
elections, peace has continued to elude the political
atmosphere in the state. The first administration to
involve the National Union of
Road Transport Workers,
NURTW in partisan politics
was that of late Lamidi
Adesina which governed the state between 1999 and 2003. If politicians had not sought
their services at one point or
the other, it would have
turned into a shocker how
mere drivers got the
effrontery to assert authority the way the union has sought
to do in recent times. It is as such not surprising
that the union has in recent
times sought to put politicians
as co-perpetrators in the
repeated violence in the state
who they claim want political office by all means. That was the issue when the
reinstated leader of the
NURTW in the state, Alhaji
Lateef Akinsola aka Tokyo
recently engaged the
government over the leadership of the union. That was despite the
seemingly matured way
Governor Abiola Ajimobi was
credited to have handled the
delicate issue of the
leadership of the union. Gov Ajimobi and Tokyo Tokyo too, had also been
trying not to involve the
governor in the controversy. It is no news that the
governor effectively laid to
rest the spate of violence that
had characterized the
activities of the union
immediately he assumed the mantle of leadership in the
state. But Tokyo, as he is
popularly called, is saying he
has delivered his own part of
the agreement reached with
the governor to ‘help’ him mobilize his supporters to
win the election. He is
accusing the governor of
having reneged on his own
part of the agreement that he
would reinstate him. Though, many people are
saying Tokyo has had enough
domination over the union for
the past eight years or more,
Tokyo insists he has never
been allowed to spend his full term as specified by the
union’s constitution. According to him, his tenure
was interrupted by Senator
Rashidi Ladoja when he was
arrested and detained for a
crime. And when Chief
Adebayo Alao-Akala brought him out of the custody, he did
not allow him to finish his
second term when he was
rudely impeached by his late
subordinate, Alhaji Lateef
Salako, aka Ekleweomo. Governor Ajimobi has stayed
aloof but, his party, the Action
Congress of Nigeria has taken
on Tokyo telling him to come
out and tell the world how he
worked for Ajimobi. In a statement by the publicity
secretary of the party, Dauda
Kolawole, the party
challenged Tokyo to say in
specific terms, what work he
did for the party in the 2011 elections that could warrant
his ceaseless shouts to that
effect. According to the party, to the
best of its knowledge, Tokyo
was never a card-carrying
member of the ACN, nor was
he any of its political leaders
who could effectively lay claim to the victory of the
party in the last
gubernatorial election in the
state. “As far as we are
concerned, Tokyo is just a
frustrated man who is
attempting to clutch at straw
and reap where he did not
sow. He should face his travails headlong in the hands
of the state which had
declared him wanted and in
the hands of the NURTW body
which does not want a
remembrance of his Satanic leadership of the union.
Neither ACN nor the leader of
our party in Oyo State,
Senator Abiola Ajimobi, is
responsible for his woes,”
the ACN said. While maintaining that the
people of the state who
sacrificed their all and queued
inside the scorching sun on
the day of the election were
more significant than Akinsola in sacrifices for the
ACN and Governor Ajimobi,
the party urged the former
NURTW kingpin to take his life
travails in his strides.
“When the name Tokyo is mentioned, he reminds the
people of the dark days of
bloodshed in the state, when
life was indeed nasty, brutish
and short. He belongs to a
forgotten era that God will never inflict on us again,”
said ACN. Challenging Tokyo more, the
ACN said. “From what we
gathered, ACN did not win in
Akinsola’s ward, nor even
in his polling booth. We are
not even sure he voted on election day. So how did he
help Ajimobi win election?
How did he work for Ajimobi?
Some people have also
claimed that he was a head of
a thug army. This too is absolutely untrue. If you
know the governor very
well, he abhors thuggery.
More fundamentally, how
could thugs have stood
against an incumbent whom we were campaigning
against… an incumbent who
had the paraphernalia of
security?” the party said. But, Tokyo, responding to the
statement said, through a
spokesman, Hammid Yusuff,
that “the statement credited
to Dauda Kolawole is larger
than his mouth and a larger load for him to carry. “The best thing he should
have done before uttering
such ill-advised statement is
for him to have gone to
elders of the party to learn
the history of the party instead of uttering
derogatory statement on
Alhaji Lateef Akinsola,”
saying everyone in the state
knew the extent of Tokyo’s
efforts in assisting Ajimobi to win the election. While describing Kolawole as
“a political opportunist,”
he directed the party
spokesman to ask Governor
Ajimobi about his contribution
towards his success at the 2011 poll in Oyo state. The group said that
Kolawole’s statement was
“a careless talk of a
pretender, distorter of facts,
a starter in Oyo state politics
and a political mercenary”. This man Dauda Kolawole
should know that those who
live in glass house should not
throw stones. Another
election is around the corner.
We shall see what contributions Dauda Kolawole
will put in ensuring another
term for his avowed party”,
Yussuf said. It is claimed that the fear of
the government is that if it
tries to reinstate Tokyo, that
that might trigger another
orgy of violence in the state
because other leaders of the union who are now in hiding,
could resist it.www.vanguardngr.com/2012/12/ajimobi-vs-tokyo-and-the-beat-goes-on/