Days after the clash the people of the area, where the union’s secretariat is located, are still counting their losses, while some are thanking God for sparing their lives from stray bullets of the combatants. Shops and stalls located around the battlefield were looted by hoodlums, while private vehicles parked by residents were seriously vandalized during the more than three-hour fracas.
The fighting, according to residents, started at 1.30 a.m, with sporadic shootings from the warring factions, when loyalists of the embattled former chairman of the union, Alhaji Lateef Salako (Eleweomo) allegedly stormed the secretariat with the aim of taking over its control from his estranged boss, Alhaji Lateef Akinsola (Tokyo). The situation kept many residents awake for the better part of the night, as fear enveloped the entire community.
Recounting her experience, Alhaja Rikatu Oduola (67), a resident of the area said she had never witnessed such thing in her life, likening the incident to a war situation. The woman, who suffers from stroke that has paralyzed her left hand and leg, for the past five years, said she resigned to fate as she laid helplessly on the bed, for almost three hours that the battle lasted.
She described the transporters as a menace to the peace-loving people of the area and urged the government to relocate their secretariat elsewhere: “Such people are not meant to be among decent people. Their office should be moved away from this community. Though Tokyo is nice to everybody, government must do something about it, our lives are precious.”
A victim of the incident, Mr Abidemi Ishola (42), whose shop was shattered with gunshots, said he got to the shop around 9.00am of the fateful day only to discover that his shop had been destroyed by the hoodlums.
Abidemi, a graphic artist, whose shop is a stone throw away from the union’s office, added that all his artworks were destroyed by the unionists. He said he could not contemplate relocating from the area, despite the incident, so as not to lose market for his trade.
According to him, he has been operating in the area for about 20 years and had built a sizeable clientele there: “As a businessman, it is always difficult to relocate your business in such situation and I don’t understand how they can move their office too.” Another victim who spoke to Daily Sun on condition of anonymity, said hoodlums hid under the guise of the fight to loot his mother’s shop, carting away undisclosed amount of money and goods.
Taiwo Omoniyi (27), said he escaped death by a whisker, after bullets continuously whizzed into his one room apartment on the fateful night. He said he had to hide under the bed for almost three hours: “I was already sleeping when I heard the gunshots, only God saved my life, because the bullets kept entering my room. I was forced to hide under the bed until they stopped fighing.”
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