MC Oluomo Rejects Osun Governor’s Power To Suspend NURTW

The national president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, has said that no state governor has the power to suspend the activities of the union.

He made the declaration on Friday while inaugurating a seven-man committee to run 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 also ordered a cessation of the collection of levies in the parks and directed 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 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, stating that the Governor, and all other Governors in Nigeria, do not have the power to suspend the union’s activities.

He said his submission is based on court pronouncements and they have won several cases in different States on suspension of the union’s activities.

The NURTW boss insisted that states that have announced a ban of the union’s activities are acting in contravention of 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 in the last few months, in Osun State, we lacked leadership of our union in Osun.”

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“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 could not leave the activities of the union without having the leader on ground. Today we heard that the state governor of Osun suspended our union activities which they don’t have that power.

“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.

Further, he said the need to set up a leadership in Osun State for the union’s activities is connected with the forthcoming governorship election in the state and its Memorandum of Understanding 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. Hence, 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.

“I have the singular honour to tell you and 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.