Court affirms Baruwa NURTW president, declares Agbede-led caretaker c’ttee illegal

A National Industrial Court sitting in Abuja has affirmed Tajudeen Baruwa as the re-elected president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers.

This was just as the court sacked the Tajudeen Agbede-led Caretaker Committee of the NURTW.

While delivering her judgment on the leadership crisis rocking the union on Monday, Justice O. O. Oyewumi held that the delegates’ conference across the six zonal councils held on May 24, 2023, where Baruwa emerged as president for a second term in office was valid.

The presiding judge also restrained the former president of the union, Najeem Yasin, who was the board of trustees chairman, from interfering in the day-to-day running of union affairs.

She held that Najeem could only act as chairman of the board.

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The court also validated the quadrennial national delegates conference held on August 23, 2023, at Ta’al Hotels in Lafia, Nasarawa State, where the president and other national officers were inaugurated.

Oyewumi declared illegal, null, and unconstitutional the national delegates’ conference held on October 25, 2023, where the current acting president, Isa Ore, and his national administrative council were said to have emerged.

According to the judge, there was no evidence of a crisis in the union.

Consequently, she held that there was no basis for the invocation of the ‘doctrine of necessity’ that led to the constitution of the caretaker committee.

Recall that the Lagos State Park Management Committee led by Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, on August 28, 2023, was reported to have allegedly took over the secretariat of the union located at Garki 2 despite the presence of armed security agents deployed to provide security.

Baruwa was later arrested on September 13, 2023, alongside four other national officers of the union by the police and detained at the former facility of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad in Abuja.

The situation compelled the Nigeria Labour Congress to issue the police 48 hours to vacate the secretariat of the union or be prepared to face stiff resistance.