The National Industrial Court in Abuja has resolved the National Union of Road Transport Workers’ (NURTW) leadership dispute by affirming Alhaji Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa as the Union’s legitimately elected President for a second term.
The court dismissed the Chairman Caretaker Committee, which was chaired by Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede.
Justice Otebola Oyewumi of the court further ordered that the former President of the union, Comrade Najeem Usman Yasin, who was also the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, refrain from meddling with the union’s day-to-day operations.
The Court ruled that Yasin can only serve as the Transport Union’s Board Chairman.
Despite Baruwa’s success in the contested election, Justice Oyewumi ruled that the zone Delegates Conference held across the union’s six zone councils on May 24, 2023, at which Baruwa was elected President for a second term, was genuine.
The court also approved the Quadrennial National Delegate Conference, which was held on August 23rd, 2023, at Ta’aL Hotels in Lafia, Nasarawa State, and attended by the President and other national offices.
Justuce Oyewumi also pronounced the national delegates conference conducted on October 25, 2023, where the so-called Acting President of the Union, Alhaji Isa Ore, and his National Administrative Council were supposed to have emerged, to be illegal, null, void, and unconstitutional.
She decided that there was no evidence of a crisis in the union, hence there was no basis for invoking the ‘doctrine of necessity’ that resulted in the formation of the so-called Caretaker Committee.
Recall that on August 28, 2023, the Lagos State Park Management Committee, led by Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, forcibly took over the union’s secretariat located at Garki 2 in Abuja following a violent attack on national officers and staff, despite the presence of armed security agents deployed to guard the premises.
On September 13, 2023, police arrested Baruwa and four other union national officers and imprisoned them at the former Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) facility in Abuja.
The scenario caused the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to issue a 48-hour ultimatum to the police to evacuate the union’s secretariat.
In a communiqué issued by NLC President Joe Ajaero and General Secretary Emmanuel Ugboaja, the union threatened to rally all of its affiliates for a confrontation in favor of the NURTW leadership, which it defined as legitimately elected.
The NLC accused the Nigeria Police of intervening in the internal affairs of NURTW and other unions, claiming that the Force had assumed arbitration powers in disputes, which contradicted industrial relations regulations.
It claimed that the Inspector General of Police allowed an invasion of the NURTW national secretariat to depose the elected leadership and install a proxy.
The labor union then recognized the validity of Baruwa’s leadership, warning that attempts to overthrow the transport union’s governance could result in bloodshed.