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From Fred Itua, Abuja
The National Industrial Court, Abuja, yesterday, affirmed Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa as the validly elected president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), for the second term, just as it sacked the Tajudeen Agbede-led caretaker committee.
Justice Oyewumi also restrained, forthwith, the former president of the union, Comrade Najeem Usman Yasin, who was also the Chairman, Board of Trustees, from interfering in the day-to-day running of the affairs of the union. She held that Najeem could act as chairman of the board.
The presiding judge, Justice O.O Oyewumi, while delivering her judgment on the leadership crisis rocking the union, held that the Zonal Delegates Conference across the six zonal councils of the union held on May 24, 2023, where Baruwa emerged as president for a second term in office was valid.
The court also validated the Quadrennial National Delegate Conference held on August 23, 2023, at Ta’aL Hotels, Lafia, Nasarawa State, where the president and other national officers emerged and inaugurated.
Oyewumi declared as illegal, null and void and unconstitutional the national delegates conference held on October 25, 2023, where the so-called Acting President, Alhaji Isa Ore and his National Administrative Council were said to have emerged. She ruled that there was no evidence of crisis in the union and, therefore, there was no basis for the invocation of ‘doctrine of necessity’, which led to the constitution of the so-called caretaker committee.
The Lagos State Park Management Committee, led by Musiliu Akinsanya (a.k.a MC Oluomo) was on August 28, 2023 forcefully took over the secretariat of the union, located at Garki 2, after a violent attack on the national officers and staff, despite the armed security agents deployed to provide security.
Baruwa was arrested on September 13, 2023, alongside four other national officers of the union by the police and detained at the former facility of the Special Anti Robbery Squad ( SARS ) in Abuja. The situation forced the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to give Nigerian Police 48 hours to vacate the secretariat of the union or face shutdown.
In a communiqué signed by NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, the union threatened it would muster all its affiliates for a showdown in support of what it described as the legally elected NURTW leadership.
It accused the Nigeria Police Force of interfering in the internal affairs of NURTW and other unions, saying the police had usurped powers of arbitration in disputes, contrary to the dictates of statutes governing industrial relations. It alleged that the Inspector General of Police acquiesced to invasion of the NURTW national secretariat to unseat the elected leadership and install a stooge.
It affirmed legality of the Baruwa-led leadership, warning that moves to upturn governance of the transport union could lead to violence.
