By Nicholas Ojo
The leader of the proscribed National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Oyo State, Mr Mukaila Lamidi, (A.K.A Auxiliary), has been charged with allegedly vandalising campaign billboards.
Auxiliary was accused of vandalising campaign billboards of the presidential candidate of the APC in the 2023 polls, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and those of other All Progressives Congress (APC) candidates in the state.
The Oyo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has again cautioned the APC in the state and its 2023 governorship candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin, against vandalising PDP campaign billboards in the state.
The Oyo State police command had vowed to hunt political thugs involved in destroying campaign billboards belonging to rival parties in the state.
The command’s spokesperson, SP Adewale Osifeso, in a statement on Sunday, said the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Williams, has ordered his deputy in charge of the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) to commence full-scale investigations to uncover those behind the destruction of billboards in the state.
According to him, some unscrupulous and criminal minded agents of mischief and anarchy perpetrate the crime during the weekend.
The command also warned political big wigs and other stakeholders in the state to check their overzealous loyalists and supporters who are driven by the ideologies of enforcing dominance and territorialism through “needless aggression and violence.”
The command further appealed to parents, guardians and other opinion leaders to caution their wards against being used by desperate politicians as cannon-fodder and destructive tools.
It also warned that anyone caught disturbing the peace or inciting violence through deeds or otherwise, anywhere across the state, shall be “decisively dealt with in accordance with relevant laws of the federation.”
However, Auxiliary, who was dragged to court by the Commissioner of Police on behalf of the government, is being arraigned on a six-count charge bordering on willful destruction of billboards of APC candidates in Igbo-Ora and Ido area of Ibadan, according to the charge sheet,
APC leaders in Oyo State have repeatedly cried out over the activities of hoodlums believed to be working for Auxiliary.
Asides vandalising billboards, his supporters were accused of attacking APC chieftains at different times in Ibadan, the state capital.