An injured man during the Ile Epo Market Mayhem
Idowu Olayiwola, the solicitor to National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), coordinator of Heavy Trucks and Goods and Comrade Richard Adeyanju has stated that their clients were not involved in the Ile-Epo market mayhem.
In a letter to PM News, Olayiwola said the actual fact is that neither the NURTW as an entity or Comrade Adeyanju as a person, were never involved in the said dispute that led to the crisis.
“We were told that the logjam and bone of contention was strictly between the authority and management of Agbado/Oke local council development area and the leadership of the market traders over entitlement to collect toll and dues in the market.
Olayiwola noted that the local government insisted on collecting the dues as its constitutional right, declaring as illegal the move by market leaders to collect dues.
The letter stated that on 7 January, when the incident happened, they were informed that the management of the local government went to the market for assessment purposes and also to stop illegal collection of tolls and dues. “It was the same market leaders that made violent efforts to stop the local government officials from entering the market that also employed the services of OPC members for the sole purpose of frustrating the activities and effort of the local government.”
Clearing his clients of any wrongdoing, the letter said: “Neither NURTW in its own capacity or Comrade Richard Adeyanju has anything whatsoever to do with the fracas.
“That the disagreement and fracas was a result of the issue of who has the constitutional rights to collect tolls and dues in the market.”
“That it was the market leaders that primarily caused the problem that happened on the said day as they were the ones that engaged the services of armed …Read More
Source:: PM Newspaper
