Stop NURTW Violence In Lagos Now

Once again, the peace on the Lagos Island was distrupted yesterday when members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, clashed over chairmanship of the union in the state.

Yesterday’s fracas was the third time in less than a week that members of the union will clash in Lagos over who should be the chairman of the union.

During yesterday’s clash, two persons were reportedly killed and others injured while properties worth thousands of naira were destroyed. Before the clash, members of the union also clashed at the secretariat of the union at Super Bus Stop, Abule Egba and two motor parks, Obalende and Orile Iganmu last Thursday.

A popular transporter and a chieftain of the union, Alhaji Ola Shehu Ekeniojuoti was shot dead on Lagos Island by gunmen suspected to be supporters of one of the chairmanship candidates during the clash at Obalende.

Our concern here is the daily disruption of the peace and commercial activities in areas where NURTW has its motor parks and by extention, the state.

By their activities, members of NURTW are known to be very violent and often visit their anger on other members of the society whenever they clash. Innocent members of the society have been known to lose their properties, and sometimes their lives, during skirmishes by members of NURTW.

This is why we are calling on the government to check the activities of this union and put a stop to the frequent violence unleashed on the society by its members.

We are aware of the fact that the huge easy money generated from the various motor parks and those collected on the roads by chieftains of the union play a key role in fueling the incessant squabbles which often lead to violence among members.

We are convinced beyond doubt that it is the large amount of money collected daily from the parks and the roads from commuter bus drivers by chieftains of NURTW that is behind the do-or-die battle by every charlatan to control the parks. The huge and unaccountable money realised by these chieftains from the parks is responsible for the frequent violence unleashed on the society. Government should do something quickly about this.

We are calling on the Lagos State government to direct its local governments to take over control of the numerous motor parks in the state and stop NURTW members from collecting toll from commuter buses. Once the government takes over the motor parks, the incentive for further violence would have been removed.

Local governments are constitutionally empowered under the residual list to control motorparks which have now been hijacked by hoodlums and mobsters.

By taking direct control of the parks, more money would accrue to the government for development purposes instead of allowing hoodlums to reap where they did not sow and using the money to terrorise innocent residents.

Apart from taking direct control of the motor parks, government should ban NURTW members from harassing commuter bus drivers for fees on the roads. Any NURTW member caught harassing drivers should be prosecuted and jailed.

By toeing this line, Lagos will not be the first. Ogun and Oyo state governments banned NURTW members from some motor parks in their states following their disposition to violence.

It is time to stop the violence and frequent killings and damage of properties by hoodlums masquerading as unionists in Lagos State. Governor Babatunde Fashola should stop the NURTW violence in Lagos now.