Osun APC To Gov Adeleke: Banning Activities Of NURTW At Motor Parks Ultra vires, Unenforceable

Osun State APC has described the directive issued to the police and other security agencies by Governor Ademola Adeleke asking them to stop activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) across the state as illegal, ultra-vires and unenforceable.

‘The governor after a security meeting on Thursday had further directed the police and other security agencies to ensure the arrest of anybody who parades himself as an official/executive of the union at any of the parks in the state.

It will be recalled that following the leadership crisis that rocked the NURTW in the state on Monday and the subsequent suspension of the union’s leadership and all transport union activities in the state, the chairmen of the 30 local governments and Ife-East Area Office, Modakeke, held an emergency meeting with the chairmen and transport unions, including the motorcycle and tricycle unions and took decisions that include appointment of a caretaker management committee in the state pending further consultations with the National Secretariat of the transport unions to elect substantive state leaders for the union.

The latest illegal directive issued by Governor Adeleke dabbling into the affairs of the management of the motor parks by the NURTW across the state which is an association duly registered puts to question the quality of those offering legal advice to the embattled governor’ the party submitted in a statement made available to Team@orientactualmags.com by its spokesman, Mogaji Kola Olabisi on Friday.

.

Osun State APC added that ‘the governor has pungently acted in defiance of Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended which simply means that he has misconstrued the position of the law in this regard’.

‘It is our belief that no police officer will carry out such an illegal order issued by Mr. Governor as it makes a mockery of the law which gives a legal window of opportunity for any qualified interested party who may be aggrieved to approach the court of law.

A similar development in Oyo State is a cast-iron proof that Governor Adeleke will, as usual, lose this NURTW matter as the Appeal Court sitting Ibadan, Oyo State, had humbled Governor Seyi Makinde by declaring his suspension of the NURTW in the state as illegal.

Governor Makinde had, on May 31, 2019, announced the proscription of the union’s activities across the state, citing a breakdown of law and order.

The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, had however declared the suspension of NURTW in Oyo State by Governor Makinde as unlawful and unconstitutional.

In its lead judgment delivered by Justice Kenneth Ikechukwu Amadi, the three-man panel of the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of the NURTW, holding that the Oyo State Government failed to prove any breach of peace or public order that warranted the union’s suspension.

He stressed that although the state has the constitutional duty to maintain law and order, such powers must be exercised strictly within the bounds of the law.

In his ruling, he held, ‘In the lead judgment, it has been demonstrated that the respondents did not prove the existence of any acts of violence against the appellant by merely mouthing violence in its counter affidavit without setting forth the acts of the appellant and concrete evidence to show the acts and conduct that can be categorised as violent.

Now, if the appellant’s activities were violent, that it is illegal act, then such violent activities can be checked by the state government, so that the law and order will be restored and maintained by the relevant security agencies, including the police, but it cannot be resolved by resort to another form of illegality by the state government going outside the lawful channel to use its whims and caprices by suspending the activities of the appellant, since the state government does not have any such powers outside of laws of the land’  the statement added.

The party also noted that ‘based on the foregoing, the governor’s directive to the police which his government had not constructively criticized of not being cooperative with him is repugnant, ultra-vires, illegal, overreaching and grossly unconstitutional which cannot stand the test of time’-Team@orientactualmags.com  Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08035023079,  08059100286, 09094171980 or get in touch via orientactualmag@gmail.com.  Thank you