The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) on Friday inaugurated a seven-member caretaker committee to oversee the affairs of motor parks and garages in Osun State, despite the state government’s suspension of the union’s activities.
The committee, headed by Kazeem Oyewale, popularly known as Asiri Eniba, was inaugurated at the union’s national headquarters in Garki, Abuja.
The development followed Governor Ademola Adeleke’s suspension of NURTW activities across motor parks in Osun after violent clashes between rival factions. The state government also halted the collection of levies in parks and directed security agencies to arrest anyone parading as an official or executive of the union.
The crisis erupted after supporters of Oyewale staged a protest against the leadership of Osun NURTW chairman, Nurudeen Alowonle. The protesters, accompanied by police officers, marched through major roads in Osogbo before confronting members of Alowonle’s faction at the Old Garage Motor Park, where violence later broke out.
Reacting to the suspension, NURTW National President, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, insisted that the Osun governor lacked the constitutional powers to suspend the union.
Represented by the union’s Deputy National President, Aliyu Issa Ore, Akinsanya said:
“I have the mandate of the President to address you today as the leader of the NURTW in Nigeria. It would be recalled that in the last few months in Osun State, we lacked leadership of our union in Osun.
“Despite calling and sending a series of letters to invite our leadership in Osun, which they failed to honour that letter, most especially we heard that they are on the run.
“We could not leave the activities of the union without having the leader on the ground. Today, we heard that the state governor in Osun suspended the activities of our union, which they don’t have that power.
“Not any single state governor has power to suspend the activities of the union because we are not under any state. There is an Act that established the NURTW. We have one series of decrees.
“I know in Oyo, recently, in Lagos, in so many states, they turned a deaf ear to our pain. But that notwithstanding, the issue at stake is not that issue. What is paramount to us is to have our leadership on ground.”
Ore further explained that the national leadership deemed it necessary to constitute the caretaker committee ahead of the forthcoming Osun governorship election.
He said:
“Most especially, we have MoU with INEC, of which I was in INEC yesterday, based on the directive of the president of our union. So, in view of this, 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 my singular honour to 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.”
