There are reports that guns boomed yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State capital, as members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) battled one another for several hours.Traffic, commercial and social activities were paralysed while business centres and schools were shut.
The commercial drivers moved from one location to another, attacking innocent residents and damaging vehicles.
The drivers, who started the attacks on Monday, were protesting the detention of their colleague, Ahmed Kolo, allegedly on the order of Governor Ayo Fayose.
Kolo was remanded in prison custody on September 27, following his arraignment at an Ado Ekiti Magistrates’ Court for allegedly attempting to knock Fayose down with his vehicle.
He was brought to court again on Monday but the court prolonged his remand.
This angered his colleagues, who claimed to have made representations to the governor on behalf of the detained driver.
The angry drivers declared war on Fayose, threatening unrest until Kolo is released.
The Ado-Ikere road was blocked for hours on Monday evening and vehicles.
The drivers blocked the road at Assumpta area, which caused traffic gridlock.
Members of NURTW continued their violent protest early yesterday.
Residents on their way to work and schools turned back as suspected hoodlums blocked the dual carriageway at Akure Motor Park.
The drivers shot into the air and wielded weapons, such as cutlasses, axes, bottles and charms, as they hurled stones at riot policemen deployed to quell the crisis.
They placed fetish objects, broken bottles, big stones and other objects on the road.
The drivers chanted anti-Fayose songs. They lit bonfires at Ajebamidele, Akure Motor Park, Ijigbo Roundabout, Matthew Junction, Okeyinmi, Ajibade Motor Park, Irona, Atikankan and Oke Ila.
An NURTW member said one of its members was shot by the police at Ajilosun. He did not reveal the name of the hospital the victim was taken to.
The driver said: “One of us was shot at Ajilosun, close to Fayose Market. There is no way we won’t avenge the killing. We are going to burn a police station, if that boy dies.”
Mrs. Florence Olukolade, a younger sister to the Founder/Chancellor of Afe Babalola University in Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), Chief Afe Babalola, told our reporter that the commercial drivers damaged her Toyota Avensis car, registered as (Ondo) AKR 657 FW.
Mrs. Olukolade said the drivers forcibly removed her car key and fled after the vehicle was vandalised.
According to her, the hoodlums damaged six vehicles in her presence.