Appeal Court Lifts Ban On Oyo NURTW

Six years after Governor Seyi Makinde proscribed the National Union of Road Transport Workers in the state, the Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan has declared the governor’s action as illegal.

The judgment was handed down by a three-man panel headed by Justice Kenneth Amadi, which ruled that the grounds on which the union was banned by the government could not be proved.

Recall that Governor Makinde had in 2019 proscribed the state NURTW accusing them of promoting violence and crime.

The union had dragged the state government to court, two years after in July 2021 but lost the case at the National Industrial court, NIC, prompting the NURTW  to appeal the judgment through its counsel Femi Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, on the grounds that the Union is duly registered in the country, and therefore cannot be proscribed by the government by just a wave of the hand.

The NURTW counsel, in the appeal prayed the court to determine whether “the executive governor of Oyo State or his agents are vested with the power to proscribe or suspend the operation of NURTW, which is a trade union registered under the Trade Union Act CAP T14 Law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

Delivering his judgment, Justice Amadi ruled that the state failed to show any act of breach of peace and order on the part of the union to warrant proscription.

The judge ruled:“Nowhere in the counter-affidavit filed by the respondents at the lower court did they aver that the conduct of the appellant warranted a suspension on the grounds of breach of peace, law, and order.

“I therefore hold that the respondents failed to justify the suspension of the activities of the appellant based on the ground of breach of peace, law and order in Oyo State caused by the union.

“I allow this appeal, set aside the suspension on the operations of NURTW in Oyo State. I also set aside the judgment of the lower court.”

The magazine reports that the state government had in 2020 set up the Park Management System, PMS, to run the affairs of transport unions following the proscription of the NURTW a year before.