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THIS is the story of Adebayo Ogundare popularly known as Adebayo Success, an indegene of Ekiti-State.
He was born on October 11th, 1941, though his sphere of activity was in Lagos.
He became involved in the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), specifically the Lagos motor-park system.
In the Second Republic (roughly 1979-1983), Lagos was a major battleground politically. The transportation/motor-park economy became intertwined with politics and control of local transport unions became a prize.
Ogundare is described as one of the early “lords of the park” (i.e., a park-kingpin) at the Oshodi bus stop in Lagos.
He is credited with extending his influence beyond Lagos into six states (Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Bendel, Ondo, and Kwara) by the early 1980s.
His influence was not merely economic but political: according to a source, he aligned first with the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and later the National Party of Nigeria (NPN), used by the federal regime to control the park-system in Lagos.
“The ruling NPN secured the grit of Bayo Success and gave him the task of winning to its side all motor parks in Lagos. This he did by mobilising a huge clientele of motor park drivers, which was not secured without the multiple shed of human blood in the fracas that ensued at the parks.”
At the height of his power (circa 1982) he reportedly owned multiple vehicles: e.g., four Peugeot 504 saloon cars rented as taxis, two Mercedes 280 cars he drove, and ran operations with Kombi buses.
Ogundare’s story exemplifies how transport-union structures in Lagos became deeply implicated in political mobilization, violence, “thuggery” networks and patronage during the Second Republic.
He was seen as a bridge between grassroots “agbero” (motor-park enforcer) culture and high-level party politics in Lagos.
The term “agbero” in Lagos context refers to informal motor-park enforcers, often accused of extortion, violent enforcement, and political manipulation.
With the end of the Second Republic (military takeover in late 1983) the patronage structures changed; his influence reportedly waned under the military regime.
His life illustrates how informal power (motor‐parks, transport unions) became formalized into political power in Lagos, the gorilla-politics of local mobilization.
His story shows how post-colonial urban Lagos governance had to contend with parallel systems of power: official political office and unofficial “park-kingpins”.
For studies of violence, patronage and “thugocracy” in Lagos politics, he is often cited as an early and prototypical figure.
The era Second Republic was politically fraught and informal power networks opaque, much of the “thug”-identity is retrospective framing rather than contemporaneous court documents.
Bayo Success died at on October 11th 2002 at 61years with an ailment diagnosed as appendicitis and that’s the end of the era of the foremost kingpin.
Felix Oluwaseun Agbesanwa.
Ilisan Remo
READ ALSO: https://www.sojworldnews.com/this-is-a-moment-for-all-nigerians-to-rally-
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