The Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Lagos State Police Command has
arrested a former Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in
Oyo State, Mr. Mukaila Lamidi, popularly known as ‘Auxiliary’ for illegal
possession of ammunition.
The police said Auxiliary also had other cases in Ibadan, Oyo State,
which included murder.
The former NURTW boss was arrested on Saturday, May 9, in Olodo, Ibadan
while he was driving his ash-coloured Nissan Bus.
On Tuesday at the command’s headquarters in Lagos, Mukaila was paraded
with exhibits which included a Zastava pistol and one packet of live ammunition
containing 50 rounds.
Earlier on March 10, 2014, the Police had arrested a notorious illegal
arms dealer, Mr. Abdulazeez Amao who smuggled in AK-47 rifles from Mali and
Burkina Faso to Nigeria, and 10 of such rifles had been recovered from him.
Amao had confessed that one of his customers was Mukaila, the immediate past
Oyo State NURTW chairman.
It was learnt that although a pistol, two magazines
with 15 rounds each and 9mm live ammunition containing 50 rounds were recovered
from Auxiliary, he had given his AK-47 rifle to a Union leader, Mr. Tirimisiyu
Olowoposi. However, Olowoposi who heard of the ex-chairman’s arrest was said to
have gone into hiding.
Mukaila confessed that he actually met the arms dealer and purchased the
ammunitions for self-defence.
He said, “He used to come to my hotel to drink. That was how I knew him.
I told him that hired killers came to my house, killed my first son and also
wounded me in the leg. He then sold the guns and ammunition to me.
“I bought the pistol and the cartridges for N350,000. It has three
rounds. I bought the AK-47 also for N350,000. I bought them over three years
ago. They are for my self-defence. I was protecting myself from hired killers.
I did not know it was illegal to keep arms. I did not know I had to be given a
licence.”
Mukaila added that he was being accused of murder because he belonged to
the Peoples Democratic Party, which was not the ruling party in the Oyo State.
“The All Progressives Congress invited me three times to join them, but
I declined that I would not leave my party because of money. Alhaji Lateef
Akinsola (Tokyo) is my master. He was the one who trained us, including the
present NURTW chairman, Mr. Taofeek Oyerinde, who is known as Fele,” he
explained.
The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, noted that the
ex-NURTW chairman would be dealt with according to the law.
The CP said, “According to what we promised when we first arrested the
illegal arms dealer, we went after one of the suspects which is Mukaila and one
of the arms sold to him has been recovered. We are still finding the others.
What we arrested him for is local possession of firearms but we have been told
from Oyo State that he also had some cases of murder.
“Nobody can commit any crime and go scot free. So, we have gone far into
investigations and very soon, he will be sent to Ibadan to face the law.”
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