SUMMARY
NURTW-Tokyo was a faction of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), which was meant to represent the collective interests of drivers of commercial passenger vehicles. The organization operated a hierarchical system with an overall chairperson leading the national entity from its head office in Abuja. However, in particularly in some administrative areas, the NURTW became a lucrative business that used threats of violence to force commercial drivers into paying arbitrary sums of money to take on their passenger. Different factions formed within the NURTW to jostle for control over these profits as criminal gangs. Various political figures also utilized the power of the NURTW or its individual factions to pursue their own political ambitions with threats or actual violence.
Although the NURTW-Tokyo faction existed in the late 1990s, it did not become active in the UCDP data until the 2000s. Within Nigeria, it operated in Oyo state and largely in the Ibadan area. Poverty, crime and urban slums dominated the city of Ibadan, which made it an ideal breeding ground for criminal gangs. Members of the group were not often formally employed in the NURTW. At times, they used weapons such as machetes, clubs or small arms.
Lateef Oloruntoki Akinsola, commonly known as “Tokyo”, led the NURTW – Tokyo faction. As a leader within the NURTW, Tokyo had occupied several leadership positions including Oyo state chairperson and National Vice-Chairperson of the NURTW. He had also received several different charges on various occasions, which included arson, rioting and murder. From 2003, Tokyo was even held in detention for two and a half years without bail on several charges of murder until he was released without conviction. This was during the term of Rashidi Ladoja, who was Governor of Oyo state and became the political opponent of Tokyo’s patron, previous governor Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu. After his release, Tokyo continued to lead NURTW-Tokyo and compete for control over the lucrative NURTW.
NURTW-Tokyo received support from various state governors of Oyo state in Nigeria.
