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From Adanna Nnamani, Abuja
The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has described deployment of armed policemen to its secretariat as an act of dictatorship that should not be allowed to stand.
The union has been engulfed in a leadership crisis in the last couple of days as its vice president, Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede, was appointed as the acting president.
His appointment was announced last Sunday at an emergency delegate conference in Abuja.
A similar conference was held last week in Nasarawa State, where Tajudeen Baruwa was returned as the union’s president.
The power tussle has torn the place apart, necessitating a deployment of security personnel by the police.
However, Benson Upah, Head of Information and Public Affairs of NURTW, in a statement, yesterday, claimed police was meddling in its internal affairs by purportedly flooding the headquarters with policemen who sought to protect a man who they see as an impostor, not the elected leader.
Consequently, the union threatened to down tool and embark on a nationwide strike if the police refused to withdraw its men.
Upah also said the matter would be escalated to other labour centres across the world, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and other international organisations or bodies
He said unions, state councils and civil society allies should see this statement as a notice for mass action against dictatorship, impunity and oppression.
He noted that the police deployment was unnecessary because a lawfully-elected leadership of the union was in place and in office.
“If anyone or party is deserving of protection, it is the lawfully elected one and not an impostor.
“There was no manifest threat to the secretariat let alone its neighbourhood, so the police invited themselves in pursuance of a sinister motive by the State and they know it.
“In the event of a major intra or inter-union dispute(s), there are clear provisions in the corpus of Labour Law for internal conflict resolution. The police are not part of that process and is reason why their invasion constitutes a violent interference of internal matters of the union in clear violation of the law;
“We want to state clearly that even our own internal mechanism was not exhausted before the police invited themselves in.
“Even during military dictatorship, the military were circumspect about taking over trade unions. So what kind of democracy are we running?”
Upah added that the imminent bloodbath which the police speak about in their statement operates only in their wild imagination.
He asked the police to immediately withdraw the police from the secretariat of NURTW to enable the lawfully elected leadership of the union function.
“They should allow for the operation of the internal conflict resolution mechanism midwifed by the Congress and stop being an interloper and face other pressing internal security challenges.”
“The invasion, according to the police statement, is to ensure that disputes are resolved peacefully and in accordance with the law”.
“We ask, when did our police constitute themselves into law courts? Isn’t this a case of extreme violation of our constitutional safeguards which clearly emphasise the separation of powers?”
