Sanwo-Olu appointed members behind RTEAN fracas into caretaker committee — Union alleges

The Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) has alleged that Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state, appointed “very members who engineered and carried out the fracas are part of the people the governor appointed as members of the caretaker committee”.

RTEAN stated that the continuous proscription of the union operations by the Lagos State Government in spite of a court order prohibiting such action leaves much to be desired.

The National President, RTEAN, Alhaji Musa Mohammed, made this remark while speaking to newsmen after a one-day peaceful protest by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) on Monday in Ikeja.

RTEAN is a trade union registered under the Trade Unions Act. Cap T 14 Laws of the Federation 2004, a Federal Enactment and affiliate of TUC.

The National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos in April nullified the appointment of an ad-hoc committee put in place by Gov Babajide Sanwo-Olu to run the affairs of RTEAN in the state and reinstated the union’s elected leadership.

Mohammed said that despite the order which invalidated the state government’s action against the union’s operations, the government was yet to lift its ban on the union’s activities.

According to him, pockets of crisis, which necessitated the proscription, were instigated by a group of backdoor power-seekers within the union.

“It is unfortunate that the very members who engineered and carried out the fracas are part of the people the governor appointed as members of the caretaker committee.

“We are owners of vehicles, we are not touts, and that is why we went to court to seek justice, and we got justice, but the state government is bent on illegality.

“All we want now is for the government to end illegality by implementing the court order that has restored the operations of RTEAN in the state,” Mohammed said.

According to him, the state government is unfair to the union with its action.

He said that two out of the over 320 chapels of the association had a leadership crisis, and the association was resolving the issue before the proscription.

Mohammed appealed to Sanwo-Olu to unseal the association’s Lagos State office.