SUMMARY

NURTW-Auxiliary 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-Auxiliary faction was first identified in the UCDP data in 2011, it may have emerged earlier. Within Nigeria, the group 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.

Mukaila Lamidi, commonly known as “Auxiliary”, led the NURTW-Auxiliary faction. Auxiliary occupied various leadership positions within the NURTW including Deputy Oyo State Chairperson and stepping in as Oyo State Chairperson after the death of his predecessor, Lateef Salako, who was also known as Eleweomo.