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By Bimbola Oyesola
The Motor/Mechs and Technicians Association (MOMTAN) has dissociated itself from a splinter group that recently conducted an election in secret, declaring the results null and void.
Addressing the media at the association’s secretariat in Lagos, president of MOMTAN, Dr. Oseni Suleiman, said the leaders that emerged at a supposedly kangaroo national executive council (NEC) did not represent the interests of the association hence should not be recognised by members of the public.
“Our attention has been called to a public notification said to have been released by some group parading themselves as the newly elected national executives of our great association,” he said.
He explained that the splinter group that constituted the new NEC is led by Morufu Arowolo, a former chairman of the association in Lagos State, who purportedly held a secret national convention at Iwo, a suburb of Osun State in Nigeria, on March 31, 2022.
Suleiman said, “Our reaction as we first published on our public programme at our National Symposium held on the 15th of October, 2021, at the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, is that, Morufu Arowolo, Ismaila Alani, Adebayo Omotosho, Taiwo Phillips and others are dismissed former members of our association.”
Against the foregoing background, he advised the general public not to have anything to do with them. Ostensibly to buttress the strength of its warning that the general public should distance itself from the bogus NEC that was newly constituted by the splinter group, Suleiman said, “We have again, taken them to a Federal High Court in Lagos since on the 7th of March, 2022 (Before their purported National Congress) and the next adjourned date is 27th June, 2022.
He also asserted, “We hereby further advice the general public to ignore them as anybody dealing with them is doing so at his or her own risk.
Ostensibly to unveil the authentic National Executives Council whose tenure would elapse on 26th of May, 2024, Suleiman said he is the National President, Mr. Adegbola Oyedele, National Deputy President, Engr. Usman Aminu, National Secretary General, Mr. Paul Abayomi Olatunde, National Treasurer, Mr. Abdurasaq Yusuf, Special Assistant to the President on Administration and Mr. Moshood Olaniyan, Welfare Officer.
Others are Engr. Victor Okoyomo, Organising Secretary, Mr. Muktar Momoh, National Public Relations Officer, Engr. Anthony Okei Ihekuna, Deputy President, South-East, Sulaiman Adedeji, Adviser to President on Special Duties, and Chief Najeem Ajayi Magbadelo, Ex-Officio.
Having disclosed the names of the authentic members of the National Executive Council, Suleiman in the same breadth notified the general public, ministries, agencies, departments and parastatals, corporate individuals and individuals, to beware of the following names that cut across Morufu Arowolo, Joseph Adebayo Omotosho, Mr. Ismaila Alani, Mr. Taiwo Phillips, Mr. Shogbanmu Olanrenwaju and Mr. Wasiu Onanuga and others, saying that they have ceased to be members of the association.
He alleged that Arowolo violated the constitution of the association when he ran for third term as the Lagos chairman and consequently dismissed when he failed to adhere.
“But since then he had been contravening the rules and regulations of the association, collecting funds without remitting it to the purse of the national secretariat,” he said.
He explained that the association is in the process of affiliating with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in cooperation with other mechanics associations for more visibility, moreso when it discovered that Industrial Court cannot prosecute its case against the splinter group.
