Earlier, the Lagos state government had suspended RTEAN activities in the state, dissolved its elected leadership, and established a 25-member park management committee led by Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya, also known as MC Oluomo, to manage all motor parks and garages in the state. However, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria nullified the government’s decision and affirmed RTEAN’s right to operate in Lagos State in a ruling delivered on April 18th.

Following this court’s ruling, the Executive National President of RTEAN, Dr. Musa Muhammed Maitakobi, appointed Aransiola Kudus, the Deputy Chairman (Admin), as the acting Chairman of Lagos in accordance with Article 7:2ii(a) of RTEAN’s constitution during the trade union’s National Executive Council meeting held in Abuja.

Comrade Yusuf Adeniyi addressed journalists after the NEC meeting and stated that the organization was dedicated to following the rule of law and adhering to the court’s ruling. He stressed the significance of unity within the organization and urged all members to collaborate to enhance transportation services in Lagos State.

The appointment of Kudus as acting chairman of RTEAN in Lagos is significant as the organization may encounter opposition from other transportation unions and stakeholders following the court’s ruling.

This appointment may also impact the organization’s stance on matters such as discussions with the government and the well-being of its members.

He has also banned collections of illegal taxes levied by agberos in some part of the state, FIJ reports.

Recall commercial bus driver had taken to the streets of the state to protest extortion by the agberos on Thursday.

Mc Oluomo told us Thursday afternoon when we held a meeting with him at the state council that no driver from Oshodi to Tollgate must be compelled to pay illegal agbero taxes anymore.

“We are only to buy two tickets in a day, after which we will not pay anything aside from loading fees.

“The normal ticket sold and approved by the Lagos State Park Management is just N800. He said those extra taxes imposed at Iyana Ipaja and Agbado Ijaiye were no longer valid. We can either buy our daily tickets in Oshodi or Tollgate, and either will be recognised.

“Afterwards, we will buy the council ticket and booking for security, which is about N500,” a driver disclosed to FIJ.

He added that MC Oluomo has said the drivers would no longer pay for tickets on Saturdays and Sundays.

“For weekend jobs, Mc Oluomo has mandated that no driver should be made to buy tickets on Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.

“The union should only compel us to buy tickets from Monday to Friday. We should be given the chance to take something home to our families.”

He added that MC Oluomo also donated N1 million to those who were injured during the attack on protesting drivers

He expressed gladness as dreivers resume work today “with minimal agbero disturbances.”

There are no more unbearable taxes. All we have to pay in a day is a little below N2,500 compared to the N20,000 we paid previously,” he added.

Hamzat made this known on Tuesday morning during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, while fielding questions surrounding violence and alleged rigging during the governorship and state House of Assembly elections.

Although, the deputy governor said he was not calling for the arrest of anybody, he said the facts should be examined and “if in truth he (MC Oluomo) has broken the law, he must pay for it.”

The deputy governor was reacting to a video that made the rounds on social media during the governorship elections in the state, where MC Oluomo, who is also the Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Works for Lagos State Council, was said to be threatening people of Igbo extraction residing in the state.

Hamzat said, “Well, I am not calling for the arrest of anybody, I am not a police officer, I am not a prosecutor, but people will look at the evidence.

And in the case of MC Oluomo he has actually come out to say that he was referring to a woman, who also come out to say that she has known MC Oluomo for years and that he was referring to her, so I don’t know the facts. But people should examine the facts and if in truth he has broken the law, he must pay for it.

“But my point which I want to make is that we all diminish this country when we actually exaggerate what happens. We have an election where you have this number of polling units and you have less than 1 per cent that have a problem and we now make it look like that 1 per cent is more important than the 99 per cent.

“I think that it is just outrageous and we should not diminish our country by saying the election is bad. No, this was a great election. Atrocities were committed an people should pay for that.”

Hamzat said the state government has been accommodating of all tribes and religions in the state, adding that Lagos is the only state that has other tribes in its State Assembly.

Hamzat, however, added, “There will be people that will always try to break the rules and we must punish them. When you punish them they serve as deterrent to others so they know that is not the way to go.”

Owohunwa said this in an interview with Arise TV ahead of the governorship and state assembly elections slated for Saturday in the state.

MC Oluomo, in a viral video, had allegedly threatened that those who would not vote for the ruling party, the APC, should stay at home.

In the video, MC Oluomo said, “Please tell them, we have begged them. If they don’t vote for us, it is not a fight. Tell them that Chukwudi’s mother, if you don’t vote for us, sit down at home. Do you understand? Sit down at home.”

However, the Lagos CP said, “We condemn in the strongest possible terms any act, statement, or an action that could be interpreted as hate speech or that could be interpreted as deepening political tension regardless of the brain that might be behind it. With regards to this specific video you mentioned, it is currently a subject of a detailed investigation.”

“Of course, we are deploying our cyber security access to solve that. And, I can assure you that nobody is above the law. This country is regulated. Anybody that tries to use his position, or his influence on others to deepen hate, or engender political tension which could, of course, snowball into violence, it remains the responsibility and the mandate of the Nigeria Police to investigate such cases.

“This specific one you mentioned will not be in isolation. It is already a subject of review. And it will be in the interest of the actors behind it and all others that might wish to also engage in such ill-informed, indirect action to be very careful, to be firmly warned because in the fullness of time, the full law will take its course and it will be not different in this instance if established.”

The court granted “an order of interlocutory injunction filed by the Labour Party and five others restraining the Independent National Electoral Commission of Nigeria (defendant/respondent), whether by itself or by its officers, affiliates, servants, privies or agents or any person acting or purporting to act for and on behalf howsoever from taking any steps or further steps whatsoever in furtherance of the engagement or appointment or consummating the appointment of Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo-led Lagos State Parks Management Committee or any of its commercial bus drivers to distribute 2023 election materials and personnel in Lagos State pending the hearing and determination the substantive suit.”

According to reports, INEC in Lagos State responded to criticism after MC Oluomo requested in a letter that the electoral umpire award him the contract for the distribution of materials by claiming that it (INEC) was working with parks administrators in the state rather than MC Oluomo.

Olusegun Agbaje, the residential election commissioner for Lagos State, had stated, “On the issue of MC Oluomo, the commission is not concerned with Oluomo. We are concerned with the issue of motor park administration in Lagos.

“For the past two years, the Lagos State government has banned the operations of the NURTW and RTEAN in the state. They had problems and the state government banned them.

“So we are left with Lagos State Park and Garages and the National Association of Road Transport Owners,” adding that NARTO, which, according to him, the commission was already working with, “is not able to meet up with the 40 per cent needs of the commission for this election,” hence the commission’s consideration of engaging the MC Oluomo-led Lagos State Parks and Garages.

“We are not dealing with MC Oluomo,” Agbaje had said, adding that “we are dealing with park managers. They are individual persons that have vehicles that we are going to use for the elections.

“The law has already banned the NURTW from operating in the state so we cannot violate the law by patronising them.

“It will be we working against the law if we have to be working with the banned associations. So it cannot work.”

This is as he also called on the aggrieved commercial bus drivers to channel their grievances to the appropriate quarters.

The Joint Drivers Welfare Association of Nigeria said its strike action continues till November 6, 2022.

The drivers in Lagos State embarked on a boycott on Monday, October 31, 2022, over extortions on the roads allegedly by the motor parks and garages management in the state.

In a statement, Monday evening, signed by its National Leader, Akintade Abiodun, JDWAN commended its members and Lagosians for their support while condemning the alleged attack a member, Ashimiyu Idowu, who was later reportedly released.

But reacting to the reports, Oluomo, through the Secretary of the Parks and Garages Management (Operations), Olayiwola Lemboye, said the agency had a conflict resolution mechanism to address the grievances of bus drivers.

He said that the state secretariat of the agency is always open to address issues among its members

As we speak, we have not received any communication from anyone on the issue of extortion or harassment. They ought to have reported the matter to their branch chairmen or bring it to the state secretariat if the branch chairmen are not forthcoming,” he stated in a statement.

He cautioned the group against politicising the operations of commercial transportation in the state.

“The purported strike action has a political undertone. If not, how come they are coming under a name unknown to the law? The government recognises two bodies – the suspended National Union of Road Transport Union in Lagos State and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria. The Joint Drivers’ Welfare Association of Nigeria is not known.

“Despite that, the state government’s Liaison Officer to the Parks and Garages Management, Mr Hakeem Odumosu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, has also waded into the matter and held a meeting with them. Instead of adhering to the agreement reached, they resulted in blackmailing the respected retired police officer,” he said.

Comrade Lemboye denied the allegation of attack on members of the aggrieved body.

“The Chairman of Lagos State Parks and Garages Management Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya is a peaceful person and will never subscribe to such illegalities. More so, our operations are limited in the Berger area of Badagry where they alleged that some of their people were attacked,” he said.

While enjoining members of the public to go about their lawful duties, he said Akinsanya has been liaising with branch chairmen on how to handle the grievances of the aggrieved transporters in a peaceful manner.

Oluomo also faulted the Presidential candidates of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP and Labour Party, LP; Abubakar Atiku and Peter Obi respectively over the incident.

The transport boss noted that it was not possible that there would be killing of protesters and the corpses would not be revealed nor would the families of the deceased coming out to ask for their loved ones.

Oluomo stated this on Sunday during a “5 Million-Man Rally,” he organised  in Lagos to support the presidential  candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Oluomo said, “Where are the bodies and where are they buried? Do they have relatives in Nigeria? Has Nigeria bribed the mothers of the deceased protesters? Why are their siblings not searching for them, even on social media? Or is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu a Chief of Army Staff or President who will order the killing of protesters at the (Lekki) Tollgate?”

“They’re lying to us, they want to undermine the Yorubas, everyone should come out. It is a political game. It was Atiku and Obi that conspired to do all those things then.”

Recall that in October 2020, thousands of youths trooped out to the streets in Nigeria and the diaspora, protesting extra-judicial killing by the police, particularly by the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad.

Following the shooting at Lekki Tollgate on October 20, 2020, a Judicial Panel was set up by the state government to investigate petitions on police brutality in the state.

Justice Peter Lifu gave the order in respect to an ex parte application filed by a lawyer, Mr Olukoya Ogungbeje.

The lawyer filed the application on behalf of himself and a new transport union, Transport Union Society of Nigeria.

Other respondents in the suit are the Registered Trustees of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Registered Trustees of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, Registered Trustees of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, Alhaji Lawal Othman, Lagos State Government, Attorney-General of Lagos State, Inspector-General of Police and the Director of State Security Service.

In the application supported by a 34-paragraph affidavit, Ogungbeje prayed the court to restrain the respondents from “forceful imposition, collection, extortion of any transport union levies, dues, fees, or monies from any person, commercial vehicle driver and/or transporter that is not a member of the respondents pending the hearing and determination of the substantive originating motion filed before the court.”

The counsel also prayed the court to restrain the respondents from “arresting, detaining, harassing, embarrassing, humiliating, inviting, seizing, and confiscating any commercial vehicle, disturbing and/or interfering with the lawful transport business operations of the applicant and its transport union members in connection with the facts of the case pending the determination of the substantive originating motion.”

Earlier, Justice Lifu had ordered the respondents in the suit to present their reasons within seven days why the reliefs sought by the applicants should not be granted.

At the resumed hearing, Ogungbeje informed the court that the processes were served on the respondents and added that they failed to respond.

On that ground, Justice Lifu granted the reliefs of the applicants.

He adjourned the case till June 6 to determine the applicants’ motion to add other parties to the suit

Also, a former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, was appointed as the Liaison Officer between the government and the committee.

This was contained in a press statement by the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, titled, “Lagos govt sets up Parks Management Committee”.

An ex-Permanent Secretary, Dr. Taiwo Salaam, was also appointed as the secretary of the committee while Sulyman Ojora was appointed as the Deputy Chairman.

The appointments were announced less than four weeks after the Lagos State Governmrnt denied plans to appoint MC Oluomo chairman of the parts committee.

The PUNCH reports that the Lagos State government suspended the activities of NURTW in all parks and garages across the state after MC Oluomo was suspended by NURTW national body.

The statement read, “The Lagos State Government has set up a committee to oversee the affairs of all motor parks and garages in the state. This is in fulfillment of the Government’s promise to ensure that events in the National Union of Road Transport Workers are not allowed to threaten law and order.

The Government has, therefore, exercised its constitutional powers to ensure that no vacuum, which can disrupt the peace of our dear state,is allowed to exist in the parks. This is a duty we owe all Lagosians and visitors.

“Members of the committee, who have been selected following consultations with stakeholders in the sector, are:

1. Mr. Hakeem Odumosu (AIG Rtd) – Government Liaison Officer
2. Alh Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya – Chairman
3. Alh Sulyman B. Ojora – (Deputy Chairman )
4. Dr. Taiwo Olufemi Salaam (Secretary)
5. Comrade Olayiwola Lemboye
6. Alh Mustapha Adekunle
7. Alh Ganiyu Shittu
8. Alh Mukaila Runsewe
9. Alh Sulyman Yusuf
10. Alh Mufutau Mutiu
11. Alh Yinka Hassan
12. Alh Sunday Ogunleye
13. Alh Moshood Omojowa
14. Alh Ismaila Aigoro
15. Alh Ibrahim Yusuf. O
16. Alh Akeem Tijani
17. Mrs Omolabake Adelakun
18. Comrade Kazeem Hassan
19. Alh Wasiu Amole
20. Alh Ganiyu Ayinde
21. Anthony Adeyinka Adeboye
22. John Victor Owolabi
23. Saburi Salami
24. Ibrahim Onitiju
25. Odusanya Gbenga

“Members of the committee are to report to the Ministry of Transportation, Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja.

“The Government on March 10 suspended NURTW operations in all parks and garages, following the tension sparked by some events in the union.”

Details of his sack was confirmed in a statement signed by its National President, Tajudeen Baruwa and General Secretary, Kabiru Ado Ya’u.

The union said Oluomo was sacked based on the provisions of the union’s constitution.

Part of the statement read, “MC Oluomo has been sacked as Lagos chairman. We had a meeting on Monday night and we have replaced him.

“His earlier withdrawal from the union holds no ground. That is unacceptable to us.”