From Oluseye Ojo, Ibadan
There was unrest in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Wednesday, when three revenue collectors, suspected to be from the Oyo State Park Management System, killed a commercial motorcyclist (“okada rider”) over his refusal to purchase a N100 daily ticket.
The incident occurred at Queen Cinema, Dugbe, Ibadan, where other motorcyclists reportedly descended on the revenue collectors and beat. The intervention of the Oyo State Police Command, however, prevented further violence and deaths.
The mob later took the lifeless body of the dead okada rider to the Oyo State Government Secretariat, Agodi, Ibadan, and requested to see Governor Seyi Makinde. But security operatives locked the entrance gate of the secretariat and prevented the mob from carrying the corpse to the Governor’s Office.
The Executive Assistant to the Governor on Security Matters, Sunday Odukoya, attended to them, saying the matter would be investigated and the government would ensure that justice is done on the incident.
The trouble reportedly began when one of the revenue collectors flagged down the motorcyclist along the theMokola-Dugbe road and asked him to purchase the N100 daily ticket. The motorcyclist reportedly refused to purchase the ticket on the grounds that he had no money.
The revenue collector and the motorcyclist thereafter are said to have engaged in an altercation when two other revenue collectors in the vicinity moved to the scene and began to beat the motorcyclist, who was said to have put up a defence. In the process, one of the revenue collectors purportedly gave the motorcyclist a deadly blow, which was said to have caused him to lose consciousness and lose his life in the process. Some eyewitnesses alleged that the revenue collector must have beaten the motorcyclist with a charm.
One of the eyewitnesses, who introduced himself as Seun, stated: ‘I was going home when I noticed two guys that were fighting. One hit the other one. The one that retaliated, they said that he wore this ‘oruka’, a charming ring. Immediately he retaliated, the other guy went down on the spot and that was how the fight escalated.
‘The okada guy that fainted, even at this point, we didn’t know if he was still alive. He was rushed to the nearby Queens Hospital and the hospital rejected him probably because it is not the kind of issue they attend to.
‘They were three guys (revenue collectors) and they were badly beaten by the okada guys and that is because the okada guys were fighting for one of their own.
‘It took the intervention of a team of patrol policemen from Mokola Divisional Police Headquarters to avert further bloodletting. The policemen were said to have whisked the revenue collectors away and carried the motorcyclist from the hospital.’
Some motorcyclists that spoke with reporters decried the excesses of the park managers as they appealed to the state government to call the park managers to order.
The Police Public Relations Officer for the state, Adewale Osifeso, confirmed the incident to reporters in Ibadan, saying an investigation has commenced into the matter.