The Lagos State Chairman of Tricycle Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria (TOOAN) Azeez Abiola, popularly known as Istijaba, has regained freedom after the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of the Lagos State Police Command arrested him.
RRS had arrested Abiola and four other suspects for allegedly attempting to cause mayhem in Agege. A pump action gun was recovered in the area.
Abiola was arrested while allegedly leading a team of supporters to the state headquarters of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Agege, an action which the authority believed would trigger violence and chaos in other parts of the metropolis.
All the suspects arrested have since been released.
Narrating his ordeal, Abiola accused the Lagos NURTW boss Musiliu Akinsanya, aka MC Oluomo, of masterminding a failed assassination attempt on him. He, however, did not provide any evidence to back the claim.
He said a day after his emergence as state Lagos TOOAN chairman, he was invited to a meeting at the state NURTW headquarters in Agege, and that while he was filling the attendance form, some touts supervised by MC Oluomo swooped on him and started hitting him.
He said he managed to rush back to his car and lock the door while he heard one of them saying the car should be burnt down with him inside, but another person advised against it.
He said RRS officers got to the scene and searched his car without discovering any gun.
Abiola was later taken to RRS headquarters in Alausa, after which he claimed that an officer brought a gun and said it was recovered within the area of the incident.
Abiola accused MC Oluomo of moving against him for emerging as Lagos TOOAN chairman which he said was at variance with MC Oluomo’s desire to control the association.
Some interests within the state NURTW, reports say, were against the alleged imposition of the Abiola-led executive by the national body without recourse to the state.
