There was a protest at the palace of the Ataoja of Osogbo on Friday by the Osun State Artisan Workers Union over the incessant attacks by some louts popularly called ‘Omo-Onile’ on their members.

The union leaders, who demanded an audience with the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Olanipekun, also accused some of the king’s representatives in the town of taking cutbacks from the miscreants.

They said the louts visit the sites where their members are working and demand money, adding that they assault them whenever their demands are not met.

Speaking, the state coordinator of the union, Comrade Adedokun Waheed, said the action of the miscreants was already affecting members of the union, calling on the state government and security agencies to come to their aid.

According to him, members of the union would not want to resort to self-defence, hence the reason why they came to express their displeasure at the palace.

He said, “We are here today to express our displeasure over the way some hoodlums are disturbing our workers in the course of doing their duties. These hoodlums will go to wherever our members are working and demand money, beating them up if they don’t give them money.

They demand between N100, 000 and N1 million. We are calling on the state government and the security agencies to call these people into order so that peace will reign in society,” he added.

One of the victims, who identified himself as AbdulGaniyu Bamikole, said that the miscreants nearly killed him and his co-workers the day they came to a house they were roofing.

He noted that the miscreants who assaulted him told them they had to do so for the house owner to take them seriously, adding that he sustained various degrees of injuries due to the incident.

He said, “We were roofing a house around Osogbo Local Government that day when these hoodlums came around. As soon as they arrived, they asked us to come down.

“Before we got down, they had already started beating the boy they met on the ground. I asked why they were beating him since we obeyed them. That infuriated them, and they pounced on me.

“I was beaten with a cutlass. They told me they had to beat us so that the owner of the house would take them seriously and pay them well,” he explained.

Addressing the union on behalf of the Ataoja and the Babakekere of Osogboland, Prince Sulaiman Olanipekun assured the union members that the monarch would look into the issue once he returned. (Nigerian Tribune)

• Protesting Osun artisans