Posted by By Kayode Fasua on
A fierce succession battle among a unit of commercial drivers under the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Akure, Ondo State, took a tragic turn Thursday.
A fierce succession battle among a unit of commercial drivers under the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in Akure, Ondo State, took a tragic turn Thursday.
While trying to hurry out of trouble, the chairman of Akure-Abuja unit of the union, Mr. Gbenga Ganiyu, driving a Toyota car in company of two other loyalists, ran into a fast moving lorry on the Akure-Benin Expressway.
The lorry, according to eyewitnesses, crushed the car, killing Ganiyu instantly. The two other occupants, one of them a secretary of the unit were said to be lying unconscious at the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, Ondo State.
Sources said the late Ganiyu, shortly before the tragedy, was under attack from his opponents in the union, who stirred a quarrel to oppose the former's wish to go for a second term in office, having served out his four-year tenure.
'The fight was so serious that the drivers brought out knives, daggers and dangerous charm
'In a jiffy, Ganiyu, in order to avoid being killed hurriedly took his car, carrying with him, the secretary and another supporter.
'But out of panic, they zoomed into the main road without watching the sideways and that was how this fast moving lorry crushed them," recalled an eyewitness.
Following the incident, the warring commercial drivers reportedly fled in different directions for fear of police arrest.
Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) Aremu Adeniran, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, confirmed the incident.
He said the driver of the lorry with registration number LAGOS: X223MUS, one Oyedun Adebayo, came to give self up at the police headquarters.
Ganiyu's corpse, he said was deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, for autopsy, while police investigations continued.