Oshodi Mayhem: No policeman was killed —POLICE

Lagos—The Lagos State Police Command, yesterday, denied, reports that it lost three of its officers to Wednesday’s crisis between factions of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, in Mosafejo, Oshodi area of Lagos State, which left three persons dead, several others injured and over 30 vehicles burnt. Meanwhile, 18 top executives of the warring NURTW factions, who were arrested in connection with the crisis, were, yesterday, charged to court. A visibly angry Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr Kayode Aderanti, yesterday, visited Oshodi market, scene of the Wednesday crisis. Mr Aderanti gave a 24-hour ultimatum to one of the factional leaders, Olu Omo, to hand himself over to the Police. Failure to comply with the directive, the CP threatened that he (Olu Omo) would be declared wanted by the command, advising him in his own interest to report himself to any police division. He warned that he will not tolerate any act capable of breaching the peace in the state either from motor part touts or any other group under whatever guise. Also speaking after an emergency State Security Council meeting at the Lagos House, Ikeja, which also had in attendance the commander of the NNS beecroft, Commodore Teikum Okoli, Commander of the Airforce Base, Ikeja, Commodore Lere Osanyintolu and others, Aderanti noted that only three persons died in the mayhem, while several vehicles were burnt. According to him, “At least, we have closed in on about 40 of the principal characters and they are in custody. Today (yesterday) alone, we have arraigned 18 of them in court and they are in jail. And tomorrow (Today), we are going to arraign about 17 of them. I am not talking about the foot soldiers. I am talking about the leaders of these people. “Tomorrow (today), I have given an ultimatum to the leader of one of the factions (Apparently referring to Mr. Musiliu Akinsanya popularly called Oluomo ). If he refuses to surrender to any of our security agencies, we are going to declare him wanted. And it is going to be between us and him.” The Police Commissioner described the crisis as saddening, especially as it resulted in loss of innocent lives, saying “In the past two weeks, we have been having challenges within the union’s hierarchy there. “And Oshodi is such a place we have to be very careful in addressing all the security challenges because it is a major hub where we have people transiting through buses and trains. Oshodi is not an enclave we can actually tackle. It is not that within five minutes we cannot get things tackled. But it is just that we are looking at the collateral damages.”