Two factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) battled on Tuesday, causing pandemonium in some areas of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
During the conflict, according to a publication WinthinNigeria there were reports of gunshots, which made the situation more tense.
It reported that a fight broke out when supporters of NURTW President Prof. Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa marched towards the union’s national headquarters, which is currently controlled by the Lagos Park Management Committee led by Tajudeen Badru Agbede,
Sources say “As you may be aware, members of the Lagos Park Management Committee, led by Agbede, forcefully occupied the Secretariat a few weeks ago, displacing the president and other executives.
“Therefore, supporters of the current president mobilized themselves in an effort to forcibly remove Agbede and his group.
“However, they were met by a police blockade which resulted in a violent confrontation. Shots were fired, intensifying the gravity of the crisis,” an eyewitness disclosed to Vanguard.
Baruwa had been seeking intervention from the police and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to resolve the situation, without success.
“We shall henceforth not hesitate to defend our mandate with the last drop of our blood,” Baruwa had earlier vowed, accusing former NURTW leaders of illegally occupying the National Secretariat of the union.
He accused the former president of the union, Alhaji Najeem Usman Yasin, and Agbede, the former National Vice President, of holding illegal meetings with selected past leaders of the union.
In a further development, Baruwa alleged that the police seem to favour the Lagos Park Management Committee.
Therefore, he called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Olukayode Egbetokun and the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Yusuf Magaji Bichi, to intervene in the matter.
He stressed that only a court of competent jurisdiction can invalidate their mandate, and encouraged aggrieved members to follow due process and seek legal redress, warning that anything short of this could lead to anarchy.