The current National President of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, Alhaji Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa, has vowed not to fold his hands and allow members of the Lagos Park Management Committee, led by Tajudeen Agbede, to steal the mandate given to him and his team.
Baruwa disclosed this while during a press conference titled ‘Coup d’etat in the NURTW’ in Abuja on Tuesday over fresh crisis brewing in the leadership of the union.
Brauwa said, “We shall henceforth not hesitate to defend our mandate with the last drop of our blood.”
He alleged the former president of the union, Alhaji Najeem Usman Yasin, and the former National Vice President, Alhaji Tajudeen Badru Agbede, of illegally occupying the National Secretariat of the union for the past three weeks.
The current NURTW president called upon the Inspector General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun and Director General of Department of State Services, Yusuf Magaji Bichi, to intervene in the matter.
“We urge the IGP and the DSS to rein in Yasin, Agbede, and their hired thugs,” Baruwa said.
While lamenting that several attempts to resolve the issue, including lodging formal complaints with various Nigerian institutions, had so far yielded no positive results, Baruwa alleged that Yasin had breached the union’s constitution by holding illegal meetings with handpicked past leaders of the union.
“Yasin has summoned a meeting of all the state councils of the union here in Abuja today September 12, 2023, with a view to persuading them to abandon the mandate given to me and my colleagues,” Baruwa said.
He further said any meeting by the board not properly constituted in line with Article 31 (a-e) of the constitution of the union is null and void.
“Najeem was a beneficiary of the same constitution he now violates,” Baruwa claimed.
He emphasized that only a court of competent jurisdiction can invalidate their mandate.
He then called on aggrieved members to follow due process of a democratic society anchored on the rule of law and go to court, warning that anything short of this could lead to anarchy
