Six ward chairmen of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) were, on Friday, saved from possible death by a group of Okada drivers and residents in the Gbagada area of Lagos. The men were discovered unconscious and foaming from the mouth inside a vehicle along Deeper Life Road of the Lagos suburb.
The crowd, which intercepted the Sienna wagon car, forced the driver into the premises of the Ifako police division, Gbagada where the quick intervention of medical officials at a nearby clinic helped to revive the men. Some of the men threw up when they regained consciousness, leading to speculation that they may have been poisoned.
The politicians, who claimed to be coming from an aborted meeting with a leader of the party named Oris at his hotel in Ibafo, Ogun State said they could not explain when they lost consciousness and how they got to the police station.
Of the car’s occupants, only the driver (also a local party leader), appeared unaffected as he drove the men from Ibafo to Lagos, until the lucky intervention of the crowd. The driver is now in detention and is believed to be helping the police with their enquiries. Motorcyclists said they chanced on the men after the driver, whom they accused of reckless driving, almost overran one of them. They chased and forced him to stop.
The Divisional Police Officer of the station declined to comment, referring all questions to the Police Force Public Relations officers at the state command. However, anti-riot policemen were later deployed to the station to disperse the crowd of onlookers gathered outside the premises. The policemen, who arrived shooting sporadically into the air, caused a near-stampede as some of the crowd, including motorcyclists, sustained injury in headlong flight from the area.
Two of the politicians who spoke to NEXT said they could have been affected by the food they ate before leaving the hotel at Ibafo earlier in the day.
One of the survivors, who is chairman of ACN ward A in Bariga, Jimoh Z.A, told NEXT that he never knew he was unconscious until he was revived at the police station.
“All I can remember was when we got to the old toll gate,” he said. “We did not drink anything there. All we ate this morning was bread and egg. So, there is no set up. We have been there since yesterday night at Oris hotel in Ibafo. There is no problem.
It is only that we are all politicians, including the driver and there is no problem amongst us. We are all one and still one. So, don’t let the announcement go far, not to panic our people. So, just let the state emergency people come and take care of us.”
He also confirmed the name of the three others, saying that the driver’s name is M.A Tairu and the chairman of ward B. The others are the chairman of ward E, Okuribido Kunle and B. Okeowo.
Another survivor, in green lace dress whose name was not known, repeatedly asked whether they are not going to die.
“What if the poison is killing us softly, because I have not taken anything and I could not stand on my feet,” he said. “They should give me something to drink so that I will not die. They should not bring people to just come and look at us.
They should let me know if I am still going to die or what if they have put poison into my food, now that I am sitting here and with nothing to drink. What if they have given us breakfast and put in poison? Would this just take us to hell or heaven like that?”
Lawal Taiwo, one of the rescuers, narrated how another Okada rider had informed them of what he noticed in the car while having an argument with the driver and how they laid an ambush for the driver while he was caught in a traffic hold up.
“If not for God, we for don burn am,” he said. “People thought that he is a kidnapper or a ritualist. But you can imagine what politicians are doing to themselves. They should just thank God for their lives.”
As the nurses were making effort to rescue the affected, a woman in white garment dramatically positioned herself beside the station’s fence, loudly praying in tongues for the victims. Family relatives also came one after the other, with some weeping. But were all denied access to the prostrate men as the nurses claimed that there is need for them to be medically stable before they could receive visitors.
