6th September, 2010
National Secretary-General of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Alhaji Danlami Garba Navom, has declared that there was no meeting where a decision was taken to reconstitute a caretaker to replace the existing one which has been on ground since January, 2010.
According to Alhaji Navom: “Article 19 (a) of our constitution says ‘the Secretary-General shall be the Chief Executive of the association whether zone, state or chapel,’ while Article 7 (iii) (e) says ‘the Secretary-General shall be a signatory to all cheques, documents and legal instrument of the association.
”The duties of the National President is to preside over all the annual, general, special and executive council meetings of the association and shall sign all their minutes; he shall have a vote and in conjunction with other officers and officials of the association, he shall superintend the general administration of the affairs of the association and endeavour to secure the observance of the constitution.’
”Hence, the President has no constitutional right to sign and dispatch any document without the prior knowledge of all other officers especially, the Secretary-General. So, any letter/document not written, signed and dispatched from the office of the Secretary-General should be disregarded by members of the public and should be treated as illegal, null and void. Therefore, the letter allegedly signed by the National President reconstituting the new caretaker committee for the Lagos State branch is illegal, null and void.”
The National Secretary said the tenure of the present caretaker expires when elections into various positions are conducted and winners are sworn in to take over from the caretaker committee and elections have not been conducted for now which means that the caretaker committee has the mandate of the NEC to continue, pending when elections would be conducted.
The National President of the association, Elder Olufemi Ajewole, had earlier in a publication reconstituted the Lagos caretaker committee, saying that most members of the committee were contesting for various positions in the coming elections and hence could no longer serve in the committee.
It was learnt that most of the new names in the reconstituted committee were also contesting for various positions in the forthcoming elections except Mr. Joseph Rotimi from the Ekiti State branch and Mr. Matthew Awaye from the Ogun State branch.
Elections into various positions of the Executive Council of the Lagos State branch of RTEAN was earlier scheduled to hold between 19 and 20 August, 2010 but was postponed to prevent crisis in the union.
Following this, the NEC mandated the caretaker committee to continue in a letter with reference number RTEAN NHQ/ADM/EC/35, dated 21 August, 2010 and signed by the National Secretary-General.