A family member to Mr. Tolulope Oloyede, a one-time unit leader of Nigeria’s dominant commercial drivers’ union, the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has raised the alarm over plans to eliminate him once he arrives in the country any moment soon.
Oloyede, it was gathered, fled the country way back in 2017, following assassination plots against him by some persons opposed to his reform moves in the NURTW.
It was gathered that while he made reports to the leadership of the union about these deadly characters, it was all through difficult to rein them in because they were powerfully connected to highly placed personalities in government circles.
Speaking with our correspondent, a cousin to Oloyede who preferred anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the issue, said some rascals within the union who had been hell-bent on killing Oloyede whenever he is sighted in the country are not in anyway assuaged.
He said he was hinted by whistle-blowers that all was set to bring him to harm having heard that he was Nigeria-bound from his sojourn in Canada.
The source told our correspondent that Oloyede left the country in 2017 to escape assassination by the “power-drunk” persons in the union, and that “these same characters fear he may return to continue his reform measures in the union”.
“Oloyede’s ordeal began way back in 2017, during the era of Akanni Olohunwa as Chairman of Lagos NURTW, when he teamed up with Babatunde, Olohunwa’s younger brother, to fight the corruption, spate of deadly attacks and other heinous crimes that dotted the administration of the elderly Olohunwa.
“But to Oloyede’s surprise, Babatunde betrayed him for pecuniary reasons, as he was bought over to the camp of his elder brother,” the source who craved anonymity owing to the sensitivity of the issue, informed.
He explained further that Babatunde who played Judas, along with his elder brother soonbegan to seek for ways to eliminate Oloyede.
According to him, moves to kill Oloyede intensified when Olohunwa was arrested by the Police in Lagos over accusations ranging from assassination to bare-faced financial improprieties.
“They thought Oloyede was behind the arrest of the chairman and some of his caucus leaders by the Lagos police, and so, wanted to kill him at all costs.
“Besides, others loyal to the new leadership that later emerged for the union saw Oloyede as a potent threat to their overbearing influence, knowing him for his transparency, accountability and decency, and so wanted to bring him to harm as well,” the source further recounted.
Our source recalled that several attacks had been launched against Oloyede’s family members by these persons after he fled Nigeria and that it got to a head when his wife, Oluwatoyin, was declared missing in February this year, in what was akin to a kidnap case, as she is still to be found till date.
The souce maintained that following the ordeal, Oloyede’s children are being fostered by family members till date.
“This incident of his wife’s kidnap definitely reinforced our belief that he could be in mortal danger anywhere in Nigeria, moreover that when he ran to Port-Harcourt in the South-South, he was traced there, but thank God, he escaped death by the whiskers.”
According to the source, Oloyede had joined the union in 2002, at a time it was most peaceful, orderly and progressive and apparently had no premonition that it would later be infiltrated by some criminally-minded persons, in later years.