The national president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly called MC Oluomo, has said that no state governor has the power to suspend the activities of the union.
He spoke on Friday while inaugurating a seven-man committee to run the affairs of parks and garages in Osun State.
The declaration came after reports that the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, suspended the operations of the NURTW in the state over rivalry clashes and recent violent activities.
The governor, through his Commissioner for Information, Kolapo Alimi, said the activities of the NURTW were suspended in motor parks across the state in a bid to restore order and strengthen public security.
He equally ordered for the stoppage of the collection of levies in the parks and ordered the security agencies to arrest any person parading as an official or executive of the union in any motor park.
The crisis started when a faction of the union led by Kazeem Oyewale protested against the leadership of the Osun NURTW chairman, Nurudeen Alowonle.
Oluomo, represented by his Deputy, Aliyu Issa Ore, inaugurated a seven-man caretaker committee led by Kazeem Oyewale, popularly known as Asiri Eniba at the NURTW headquarters in Garki Area, Abuja, that the Governor, and all other Governors in Nigeria, do not have the power to suspend the union’s activities.
He said his submission was based on court pronouncements and they have won several cases in different States on suspension of the union’s activities.
The NURTW boss asserted that states that have declared a ban on the union’s activities are acting contrary to court orders.
“I have the mandate of the President to speak to you today as the leader of the NURTW in Nigeria. “Recall that in the last few months, we lacked leadership of our union in Osun State, Osun.
“We have called and sent a series of letters to invite our leadership in Osun but they failed to honour that letter, most especially we heard that they are on the run.
“We couldn’t leave the union’s activities without the leader on the ground. Today we heard that the state governor of Osun suspended our union activities which they do not have that power.
“No single state governor has power to suspend the activities of the union, because we are not under any state. There is an Act that created the NURTW. There is one set of decrees.
“I know in Oyo, recently, in Lagos, in so many states, they turned the deaf ear to our pain. But that aside, the issue at stake is not that issue. The most important thing for us is to have our leadership on the ground,” Ore said.
He also said the need to establish a leadership in Osun for the union’s activities is linked to the forthcoming governorship election in the state and its MoU with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on the distribution of electoral materials.
Ore emphasized that the caretaker committee would continue until all matters affecting the union in Osun State were resolved.
“Most especially, we have MoU with INEC of which I was in INEC yesterday based on the directive of the president of our union. Therefore, we have to inaugurate the caretaker members who are to mount the leadership of the NURTW, pending the time we resolve all issues attached to Osun.
It is with the singular honour that I tell you and inform you that these are the leadership that will be leading our union activities in Osun. “First, the chairman is Alhaji Kazeem Oyewale,” he said.
