‘Your Allegation on Violent Takeover of Motor Parks with NURTW is False’

Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo

The Osun State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused the Accord Party of chasing shadows over the issue of the leadership of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state.

The Osun State Accord Party Chairman, Victor Akande, had, in a statement issued last Sunday, accused the state chapter of the APC of working with the National President of the NURTW, Alhaji Musiliu Ayinde Akinsanya, popularly called (M C Oluomo), to plot a violent takeover of motor parks in the state.

The Accord Party specifically mentioned  Oluomo as “the mastermind of the violent plot using his surrogate, Alhaji Kazeem Oyewale, popularly called (Asiri Eniba), and certain disgruntled elements within the state APC.”

In a statement issued and made available by Mongaji Kola Olabisi, the Osun State APC Director of Media and Information, the party noted that: “It was quite unfortunate that the party, whose governorship candidate had just won his re-election, could be so manifestly bereft of the understanding of the working of the state government with special reference to the control of the motor parks in the state.”

He stressed: “How many times do we need to spoon-feed the Accord handlers and the state government with the sufficient and elaborate position of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended that any plan of the state government to dabble into the running of the NURTW amounts to meddlesome interloping.

“We, as a political party, have no business in the running of the NURTW in the state, as such is not captured in any of the provisions of the constitution of our party.”

He urged members of the public and the police to disregard the false allegations of the leadership of the Accord “that we were planning to disrupt the public peace in the state, as such allegations are frivolous, reckless, diversionary, and without any proof.”

Olabisi stressed that: “If there is a ploy from any quarter to rock the boat of peace of the state, the state government and the ruling Accord handlers who are illegally dabbling into the affairs of the state chapter of the NURTW and subsequently spreading falsehoods should be held responsible for it.

“We thought that after the last governorship election, the incumbent state government would deem it necessary to face governance squarely instead of chasing shadows and making it a habit to misinform members of the public.

“We are currently collectively preoccupied with working for the re-election of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the January 2027 presidential election, which qualifies the unsubstantiated and baseless allegation of the Accord to be thrown into the dustbin of history.”

He added: “The call by the state government on the police to take over the motor parks in the state is needless as the National President of the NURTW, Oluomo, who had once cleared the knotty issues on this, had successfully sworn in the caretaker committee members of the union in the state led by Asiri Eniba, to steer the affairs of the union in a caretaker capacity for the next six months.”

“It is trite law under the 1999 Constitution as amended that the control, establishment, and regulation of motor parks fall under the local government councils, which are the third tier of the government.

“Section 7(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended guarantees the system of local government by democratically elected local government councils across the country while the same 1999 Constitution assigns the direct administration and revenue collection of public motor parks to local authorities rather than the federal or state government as ignorantly espoused by the Governor Adeleke-led government in Osun.”