Court Sacks MC Oluomo’s  Park And Garage Administration, Reinstate RTEAN

By Akinwale Kasali

The reign and dominance of Musiliu Akinsanya (MC Oluomo) as the Chairman of the Lagos Parks and Garage Administration has ended. MC Oluomo has been sacked by the  National Industrial Court. He was sacked on Wednesday by the Court in Lagos.

Justice Maureen Esowe, the Trial Judge, nullified Oluomo’s appointment and  ordered the reinstatement of the operations of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, in the state.

The Suit was instituted by RTEAN against the State Government and other defendants.

The Lagos State Government had dissolved and suspended the activities of RTEAN and took over the Parks and Garages. It then leading appointed  MC Oluomo as the Chairman of the State Parks and Garages.

Oluomo’s appointment came after his sacking by the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, over his alleged high handedness, abuse of office, financial recklessness and other series of  allegations leveled against him.

Following the suspension of RTEAN by the Lagos State Government, RTEAN dragged LASG to court in October 2022, over the dissolution of the elected Executive Committee of the Union , and the appointment of a Caretaker Body, known as the Parks and Garages Administrators.

The plaintiffs joined the State Governor, the Attorney-General of the State, Sola Giwa, Special Adviser to the State Governor on Transportation, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, and all  members of the Caretaker Committee in the case. It argued,  through its Counsel, Elisha Kurah, SAN,  that a State cannot interfere in the affairs of a Trade Union registered under the Trade Unions Act of 2004, adding that the State cannot dissolve the Union. It contended that such matters are handled by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

But, the State Government  argued that the Government did not violate the law or dissolve the National Body’s operations in the State, but sought to maintain law and order by creating the ad-hoc Committee when violence ensued between the unions.

In his judgment, Justice Esowe, dismissed the defendants’ preliminary objections to the suit, insisting the matter was straightforward.  The Court, he said, has jurisdiction to hear and determine it with no serious dispute to warrant an exchange of pleadings.

The Judge held that the action of the Lagos State in suspending the National Union’s operations in the State and setting up a caretaker committee was illegal and against the provisions of Sections 4 (1), (2)& (3), and 5 (1) &(3), read along with item 34 of the exclusive legislative list, of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The judge also held that the Government and the Police should have intervened by arresting and prosecuting those behind the fracas and not inquiring into the dispute.

Justice Esowe restrained the Lagos State Government from further interfering with the operations of the Union’s  Exco and ordered the police to refrain from intimidating the  Officers and to remove all barricades it imposed around their Secretariat and to grant them unfettered access to their offices.

Jubilation greeted the judgement.