Oyo NUJ condemns park manager’s attack on female journalist, ask Makinde, police to rein in

OyoState Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ) has condemned the attack meted out to an hapless female journalist, Zainab Olayiwola and her children on Sunday in Ibadan, the state capital  by an errant official of the Park Management System (PMS).

Olayiwola, an NUJ member and staff of Jamz FM, a Chapel that was inaugurated as a member of Oyo NUJ State Council last week in Ibadan was reportedly slapped by an official of the PMS, who also manhandled her kids, filtering away their luggage from a tricycle conveying them home.

The NUJ in a statement  signed by its Chairman, Ademola Babalola and Secretary, Sola Oladapo on  Monday tasked the State Governor, Engr. Seyi Makinde and the law enforcement agents to rein in, on the said official and ensure justice for Mrs. Olayiwola and her kids. 

The PMS, is a special unit put in place by the Oyo State Government to manage the affairs of public transportation in the state after the proscription of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

The PMS has a former factional chairman of the NURTW in the state, Mr Mukaila Lamidi popularly known as ‘Auxiliary’, as the Chairman of its disciplinary committee.  

While narrating her ordeal in the hands of the Chairman, Park Management System (PMS), Tricycle section at Orita-Challenge, Liberty Academy, Idi-Iroko area of Ibadan, Akeem Animashaun a.k.a System, she informed that the incident occured around 7pm, when she was heading home with her kids and had to take a tricycle popularly reffered to as Marwa.   

“We were supposed to be taken home by my husband but unfortunately he recieved an urgent call to be somewhere else, hence the need for me and my kids to make use of public transport. We decided to take a tricycle, we boarded Animashaun’s tricycle and after some minutes, he told us to exit his tricycle that he was going to take some passengers on charter.     

“That was when I told him that his action was not fair, that he did not tell us he was not going to take us to our destination. In the twinkle of an eye, he had already flinged my children’s bags away and started dragging them out of his tricycle. 

“This action of his I protested and the next was that he gave me a very hot slap.   

“Of course, because of the fact that he is a man, I could not retaliate, my children were crying and I was left helpless and stranded for quite some time,” she narrated.

The NUJ said the vicious attack on one of its members was not only barbaric, but also regrettable that “the outlawed NURTW members clothed in PMS uniform, had yet to learn their lessons like a leopard which hardly changes its spots.”

The Union insisted that the matter would not be allowed to be swept under the carpet until justice prevails.