Must Read: How I Dealt With NURTW Leaders

Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi has offered insights into how he handled the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) known for fomenting troubles in the state.

Until Ajimobi took over, the state was under the threats of constant violent crisis by feuding NURTW leaders leading to several deaths and injuries.

The governor said he decided from day one not to have anything to do with the body that will endanger peaceful existence of Oyo.

He spoke while delivering a public lecture with the theme: “Peace and security architecture for sustainable development in Oyo State” organised by the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) at the University of Ibadan old Conference Centre, Ibadan.

He said: “When I came in 2011 and the leadership of NURTW came on a visit, saying Your Excellency, we are for you’, I said no! Be for peace. If any of you steps on the law by fomenting trouble, you will be arrested and jailed. They conformed with the directive and peace was back.

“To make an omelet, you must break eggs. For you to make sustainable changes possible, you must step on toes.

“When the elders in the state realised I would not budge, they came to beg me and I insisted that for the state to escape the siege of brigandage, where students of universities were killed in broad daylight at Iwo Road, it had to stop.

“They grudgingly agreed that the reign of terror had to stop and today we are talking about the prevalence of peace in the state.

“I make bold to say that if peace is the only achievement people will remember of this administration, I am happy about it.”

He appealed to the governor-elect Seyi Makinde to be ready to ensure enforcement of legal actions against people, who plan to obstruct peace and tranquility in the state.

The governor added: “I call on the incoming administration to see the maintenance of peace that had already been entrenched as important.

“He should not at any period shy away from making the leadership of NURTW realise the enormous power reposed in the office by not taking necessary steps at all times to put them in their place.”

SPSP President, Dr. Nathaniel Danjibo lauded the qualities of the governor that made the society arrived at the decision that he deserved the honour.

He reiterated the fact that Ajimobi’s administration succeeded in containing the hitherto NURTW skirmishes, bank robberies and activities of the notorious ‘one million boys’ in the state as well as the establishment of community relations department that had worked assiduously to bring to nearest minimum, herders’ crisis with farmers.