Industrial court sacks Lagos parks, garages committee, reinstates RTEAN

The National Industrial Court of Nigeria in Lagos on Tuesday voided the Lagos State government’s appointment of a caretaker committee to manage parks and garages.

Justice Maureen Esowe ordered the reinstatement of the operations of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria in Lagos State.

The judge held that the state government’s suspension of the national unions’ operations and setting up of a caretaker committee was illegal and unconstitutional.

She held that the government and the police should have intervened by arresting and prosecuting those behind any fracas purportedly involving union members and not inquiring into the dispute.

The court also restrained the state government from further interfering in the operations of the union.

It ordered the police to refrain from intimidating the union’s officers, to remove all barricades it imposed around their secretariat and to grant them unfettered access to their offices.

Justice Esowe also dismissed the defendants’ preliminary objections to the suit, saying the matter was straightforward, with no serious dispute to warrant an exchange of pleadings.

RTEAN had instituted the suit in October 2022 to challenge the Lagos State Government for allegedly dissolving the elected executive committee of the union in the state and appointing a caretaker body, known as the Parks and Garages Administrators, headed by Mr Musiliu Akinsanya, popularity known as MC Oluomo.

The defendants in the case are the Governor, the Attorney-General of the state, Moyosore Onigbanjo and Sola Giwa, who is the Special Adviser to the governor on transportation.

The 4th-37th defendants are the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, and all the members of the caretaker committee.