Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly called MC Oluomo, the national president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), has said no state governor has the power to suspend the activities of the union.
He spoke on Friday while inaugurating a seven-man committee to manage the affairs of parks and garages in Osun State.
The declaration follows 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 to restore order and strengthen public security.
He equally ordered 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 began when a faction of the union led by Kazeem Oyewale protested the leadership of the Osun NURTW chairman, Nurudeen Alowonle.
Oluomo, through his Deputy, Aliyu Issa Ore, inaugurated a seven-man caretaker committee headed 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 stated that his submission was predicated on court pronouncements and that they have won several cases in various States on the suspension of the union’s activities.
The NURTW boss maintained that states that have declared a ban on the union’s activities are acting against court orders.
“Today I stand before you as the leader of the NURTW in Nigeria, and I have the President’s mandate to speak to you. “Recall that we were without leadership of our union in Osun State, Osun in the last few months.
“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 walk away from the activities of the union without the leader on the ground. Today we heard that the state governor of Osun suspended our union activities which they don’t have that power.
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“No state governor has the 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 in play is not that issue. “The most important thing for us is to have our leadership on the ground,” Ore said.
He also said that the need to establish a leadership in Osun for the union’s activities is connected 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 said the caretaker committee would remain until all issues 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. We have to swear in the caretaker members who are to take over the leadership of the NURTW, pending the time we are able to resolve all issues attached to Osun.
I am with the singular honour to tell you, to inform you, that these are the leadership that will be leading our union activities in Osun. “First of all, the chairman is Alhaji Kazeem Oyewale,” he said.
