Ambode bans union activities as gunmen kill NURTW leader’s aide on Lagos Island

Akinwunmi Ambode

Following the crisis rocking the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Lagos Island Chapter, the State Government on Tuesday ordered the immediate suspension of all union activities on the Island indefinitely.

Commissioner of Police, Imohimi Edgal, who disclosed this shortly after the security council meeting held at the Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja and chaired by Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, said the decision was to forestall any further breakdown of law and order and ensure that the peace in the area is not hampered.

Gunmen had in the early hours of Tuesday killed one Ganiu in the Idumota area of Lagos.

The deceased was the personal assistant to Alhaji Kunle Azeez, an NURTW leader.

Ganiu (aka Piero), Azeez (aka Kunle Poly) and some security guards, including two policemen, were reportedly returning from a meeting when the gunmen opened fire on them.

While Ganiu was hit and died on the spot, others sustained varying degrees of injury as they fled from the hail of bullets released by the assailants.

Edgal, while urging members of the NURTW on Lagos Island to comply with the directive, said that government would not hesitate to totally proscribe all union activities if members continue to disturb the peace in the area.

He said: ”In view of the crisis rocking the NURTW chapter of the Lagos Island and the insecurity it is creating on the Island, the security council meeting today chaired by the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has ordered that union activities be suspended on the Island until further notice.

“We are also using the opportunity to call on NURTW leadership in the state that nobody or group of persons, organisations would be allowed to tamper with the peaceful security situation in Lagos State and that the government would not hesitate to proscribe completely all union activities in the State if their members do not obey the laws of the land and ensure that their activities do not amount to breaching the peace.”

While thanking Lagosians for their support in keeping the peace in the state last year, the commissioner of police said the command under his leadership has begun series of town hall meetings across the state to set the tone for policing in 2018 and inform residents on the need to take interest in knowing what is happening in and around their neighbourhood.