Police Tanks Sent To Lagos Parks, Crisis Looms In NURTW

The Police in Lagos, Southwest Nigeria, have deployed armoured personnel carriers to some motor parks in the state as members of the Lagos chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), are spoiling for war over alleged moves by some top government officials in the state to impose a new leader on them.

The members alleged that since the recent dissolution of all state councils of the union nationwide by its national governing council, some of the leaders of the union in the state have been making frantic moves to return to office, thereby holding nocturnal meetings with their godfathers and some top government officials who have been frustrating all efforts to restore peace in the crisis-ridden union.

They also alleged that the people have been aborting all plans to organise a fresh election in the state by the national executive body.

Speaking on the issue, the chairman of the state council of Elders’ Forum and pioneer president of the union, Alhaji Majeed Bakare, advised the elders of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and government of Lagos State to quickly look into the matter before it gets out of hand.

The forum also alleged that “a lot of nocturnal meetings are held by some people in government to impose on the union members again a person whose administration had further deepened the crisis in the union, rather than resolving them.”

In a press statement, the Elders’ Forum said: “for the umpteenth time, we want to kick against imposition of a leader on us by the government since we have realised that the same people who are conniving with our immediate past chairman, Rafiu Akanni Olohunwa, to sell off our BRT franchise right to a company where he is a director, are also planning to impose him on us for a second time. We are not going to accept this, it won’t work.”

The NURTW elders also implored the former governor of Lagos State and national leader of the ACN, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to quickly interfere in the matter by nominating a new leader for the union and stop the moves allegedly being made by the ex-chairman in the state and his godfathers.

“Since Olohunwa was supposed to correct the ills in our union but failed and lost focus, we have also lost confidence in him. If they impose him on us again, we’ll revolt and there will be unrest. Our union has suffered enough. We are calling on Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to come to our aid. We want Tinubu to realise that 99 per cent of the NURTW members in Lagos State are card-carrying members of the ACN and if our union crumbles, ACN will crumble in the state. We do not want an exodus of members of the union due to this suffering. If we continue to suffer like this and they still impose an unpopular leader on us, we’ll have no choice but encourage an exodus of members of the NURTW from the party.

“Some elders now live on N100 per day, it is that bad. Let Olohunwa come out and tell us what he has been able to achieve in his three-year administration. If he thinks he wants to contest, let him come and test his popularity in another election and not by going through the back door,” the forum stated further.

“Recently in Abuja, he was defeated by Comrade Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya, when they both contested for membership of the Board of Trustees. We have our facts. Where nine out of 12 delegates voted for Akinsanya, only three voted for Olohunwa. That’s to tell you that he is no longer popular. That is the reason he wants to go through the back door,” the statement added.

Also speaking at a joint press conference last weekend, executive members of Yaba, Mushin, Fadeyi, Ikotun and Lawanson branches of the union, who have formed a coalition to fight bad administration in the NURTW, encouraged government to probe the administration of the immediate past chairman.

“We want government to probe the administration of Olohunwa in the last three years. The few things he was able to commission were projects of our late caretaker committee chairman, Alhaji Saka Saula. We also want anti-graft commissions to investigate all the alleged financial misappropriation that trailed the three-year administration. We want government to act fast,” the group stated.

Meanwhile, an air of war is pervading the Cele bus stop, along Apapa/Oshodi Expressway, following unconfirmed report that a group of people were planning to invade the park. Already, the Lagos State Police Command has deployed two tanks, one at Cele bus stop and the other at Ikotun, to forestal any breakdown of law and order along the axis.

A spokesman for the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), at Cele, Mr. Hakeem Ogundele, accused another powerful member of teaming up with a former state chairman of the union and a few disgruntled elements among the ousted executive members of the branch, to disrupt the relative peace presently being enjoyed at the park.

He accused the group of trying to enact the near war situation, which he alleged they were the mastermind in Mushin and Cele.

He further accused them of trying to use officials of the Lagos State Ministry of Transport to forcefully take over the park and called on security agents to hold the member from Mushin responsible for any form of breakdown of law and order at Cele.

A top police officer who asked for anonymity, told P.M.NEWS that the police took the step as a preventive measure to forestall any breakdown of law and order.

“We are not threatening them, we are advising them to keep off that place and let peace reign. If anyone tries any nonsense there, he will regret it all his life. It’s a promise. We had a meeting with all stakeholders last week and they all signed an undertaking to be of good behaviour. A word is good enough for the wise,” the officer said.