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NURTW: Mc Oluomo dares Lagos Govt, national body as ICIR report stirs reawakening (part 1)

THEY are all over the place, enforcers of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), collecting dues from commercial bus drivers, tricycle and motorcycle riders, and even from traders in bustling commercial centres like Idumota, Yaba and Oshodi markets, as has been their wont for many years.

The only difference, The ICIR observed, was that the enforcers, operating in a ruthless toll-collecting chain that winds to the top under the command of the suspended Lagos NURTW chairman, Musiliu Akinsanya, widely known as MC Oluomo, were operating in mufti, rather than in the green-and-white uniform that they had become synonymous
with.

Some drivers our reporters spoke with on Monday who lamented they had suffered greatly from the jackboot manner the enforcers had been prising dues from them, regarded the continued dues collection by the Lagos NURTW as an affront to the Lagos State government.

An agbero at Agege without his usual uniform. Credit: Joseph Olaoluwa_ICIR

The NURTW, headed by its national president, Tajudeen Baruwa, had on March 9, 2022 suspended Oluomo indefinitely for what it alleged as his “insubordination, misconduct and inciting members of the state chapter against its national body.”

The union, in the suspension letter signed by the NURTW’s general secretary, Kabiru Yau, Oluomo accused Oluomo of planning to “instigate crisis and unleash mayhem on any branch or branches of the union in Lagos State that refused to obey his order or instruction not to accept directives from national headquarters of the union.”

The union feared that Oluomo’s alleged orchestrated plan to attack branches that might disobey his order would endanger public peace and order in the state, hence “the urgent need to take drastic action against him.”


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The union’s headquarters said it issued Oluomo two queries on February 22, 2022, and March 3, 2022, to explain “the circumstances surrounding his untoward actions”, and to also show cause why disciplinary actions should not be taken against him for alleged acts

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of insubordination.

Oluomo was said to have replied to the first query, which explanation the union considered “unsatisfactory”, while he “bluntly neglected/refused to respond to the second query.”

MC Oluomo, Chairman of NURTW

MC Oluomo had immediately reacted on the same day he was suspended with a statement announcing the break-away of the Lagos State chapter from the national body, citing section 40 of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, which entitles every person to freely assemble and associate with other persons.

He then called on the Lagos State government to take over the management of any garage or motor park where there is a crisis until the crisis is resolved by a consultative committee.

He also urged the Lagos State government to take over the running of the affairs of the union with the constitution of a Park Management Committee for motor garages and parks in the state.

As if hearkening to Oluomo’s charge, the Lagos State government, the same evening, announced it was suspending the activities of the NURTW in parks and garages in the state.

A statement from the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, on behalf of Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu ordered the NURTW to stop operating in all parks and garages in the state.

“The Government will set up a Committee to immediately take control of the parks and garages. Members of the Committee will be key stakeholders in the sector,” Omotoso stated.

A cross section of Berger bus park. Credit: Joseph Olaoluwa_The_ICIR

A week after the state government said it would “immediately” be constituting a committee to take control of the parks and garages, it is yet to do so.

What is, therefore, happening at the bus stops, parks, garages and even the markets, as seen by The ICIR reporters, is a discombobulation in activities as Lagos NURTW enforcers compete with officials of the state government saddled with the issuance of an N800 daily ticket to commercial bus drivers in the gathering of the humongous revenue that is generated from dues collections from commercial vehicle operators.

The ICIR eye-opening report

An official of the Lagos State government admitted that a well-researched report The ICIR published last year detailing the billions of naira that Oluomo and his Lagos NURTW were earning every day from their hoodlum-like operation of the parks, garages and bus stops awakened the government to how much the state government had been losing from what could have been revenue it rightly deserved.

Findings by this newspaper through oral testimonies and estimates obtained from more than 50 commercial bus drivers in 21 out of the 57 local governments and local council development authorities (LCDAs) in Lagos showed that each commercial vehicle driver pays, at least, N3,000 daily to the enforcers, widely known in the local parlance as agbero.

The ICIR’s estimates showed that the drivers pay an average of N225 million each day, N6.75 billion each month, and N82.125bn each year to the Lagos NURTW.

There are, at least, 50,000 commercial tricycles (keke Marwa) in Lagos, according to a 2020 report by Techcabal. With every commercial tricycle rider found to be paying, at least, N1,800 each to the agbero each day, the enforcers walk off with, at least, N90m from dues collected from the riders. Every month, the earnings could reach as high as N2.7bn, rising further to N32.85bn every year.

The average daily collection from each keke Marwa is higher in Mushin (N2,500-N3,300), Isolo (N1,900-N2,200), Oshodi (N1,800-N2,300), Coker/Aguda (N2,200-N3,000) Itire/ Ikate (N2,200 -N3,200), Iru-Victoria (N2,300-N3,200), Ikeja (N2,200- N2,500), and Onigbongbo (N2,200-N3,000) local government and LCDAs, among others, the investigation showed.

The report estimated the total money Oluomo and the Lagos NURTW were raking in every year to be N123.078bn, which is approximately 29.4 per cent of the state’s internally generated revenue figure in 2020.

Transport Statistics and Annual Revenue Paid to Agberos in Lagos
Transport Statistics and Annual Revenue Lagos NURTW enforcers rake in

These disclosures, The ICIR was informed, stirred the Lagos State government into realising it was time it weighed in on the dues collection action. The disclosures could also have awakened the national body of the NURTW into realising certain alleged excesses of the Lagos NURTW and Oluomo and deciding it was time to clip his wings.

Infographics on Transport Earnings of Lagos Local Govts
File: Amount realised by each LCDA in Lagos from transport taxes.

The Lagos State government N800 ticket

On Tuesday, January 18, 2022, the Lagos State government introduced what it called a daily ₦800 Consolidated Informal Transport Levy for transporters in the state.

The government levy was expected to harmonise dues being collected from drivers and riders at parks and garages across the state. It was also expected to reduce multiple taxation.

levy Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo
State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo. Credit: Punch

The Lagos State Commissioner for Finance, Dr Rabiu Olowo,  explained that the levy, pegged at a flat rate of N800, covered money for not just the local government levy alone, but also that of clearing waste from motor parks, which was being paid to the Ministry of Transportation, Lagos State Waste Management Authority and Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency.

Olowo added that once a transporter paid the ₦800 at a point, he would not be expected to pay at any other park or bus stop throughout the day.

The levy was initially expected to kick off on February 1, 2022, but the state government pushed the commencement date to February 7, 2022.

The ICIR on Monday morning of March 14, saw some men that the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transport, Oluwatoyin Fayinka, described as governments agents accredited to sell the N800 ticket to commercial drivers issuing the tickets at the Agege motor
park.

On the day Olowo was announcing the introduction of the government’s levy, Oluomo had immediately declared the levy would in no way stop the Lagos NURTW from collecting its dues from commercial vehicle drivers and riders.

His words had rung true as the enforcers have not ceased collecting the NURTW dues, even as drivers pay the government’s daily N800 levy. Our reporters did see the NURTW enforcers out of uniform  still collecting the dues from the drivers and riders across the state.

Tales of bloodbath between NURTW, TOOAN

A major contributory factor to Oluomo’s present travail is his protracted altercation with the Tricycle Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria, (TOOAN), Lagos chapter. For many years, the Lagos TOOAN had craved for independence away from Lagos NURTW control and sought for freedom to operate under its own umbrella, while still under the national NURTW. The insistence by Lagos NURTW to bring the Lagos TOOAN under its wings, principally to ensure commercial tricycle riders pay their dues to it, has claimed many people’s lives, including those of innocent commuters and passers-by, as members of both unions freely applied deadly weapons like guns and knives whenever they clashed.

Oluomo had mentioned freedom of association in his statement announcing the pull-out of the Lagos NURTW away from the national body. But a Lagos TOOAN leader, in a chat with The ICIR, wondered how Oluomo had not considered freedom of association when he was “forcing” TOOAN and the Amalgamated Commercial Tricycle and Motorcycle Owners, Repairers and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), both of which had wanted independence, under the control of the Lagos NURTW and compelling Keke Marwa and okada (motorcycle) riders to be compulsorily paying dues to it.

Many lives were lost in the process of achieving that aim. In 2017, a student of Hospitality Management, Federal Polytechnic, Idah, Kogi State, Edibo Roseline, and a commercial tricycle rider in Abule-Egba, Komolafe Olamilekan, were victims of stray bullets after both unions (NURTW and TOOAN) clashed at Iyana-Ipaja, Abule-Egba and Kollington, in battles overpayment of dues that lasted for three days. TOOAN members had resisted paying the dues to the Lagos NURTW.

Victims of stray bullets during transporters crisis. Credit: Vanguard

According to Roseline, she had boarded a commercial tricycle from Agege to Abule-Egba. But the tricycle had run into a crisis between hoodlums of the Lagos NURTW and TOOAN at Abule-Egba at about 6pm and she was hit by a stray bullet. She was lucky to be alive.

Olamilekan alleged he was shot by NURTW men when it was his turn on the queue to load passengers. In the end, two people were killed during the crisis, while nine were injured.

Last month, in the immediate cause of the crisis that resulted in the suspension of Oluomo, the Lagos TOOAN chairman, Abiola Azeez, alias Istijabah, said he and four of his members were involved in a near-death encounter within a clash with members of the NURTW. According to Istijaba, Oluomo refused to accept the deal reached by his members with the national leadership of NURTW in Abuja over the spate of clashes between the two unions in the state.

The TOOAN leader, in a an  interview, explained that the Lagos TOOAN and Lagos NURTW used to work in harmony till MC Oluomo’s dissolution of TOOAN and its division into five zones.

Azeez accused MC Oluomo of making one man, simply called Gaji, a zonal chairman, while chasing all his faction of state executives of TOOAN away. This led Azeez to seek redress from the national body in Abuja.

He said, “After a series of complaints, our national president, NURTW, Tajudeen Baruwa, invited us for a meeting in Abuja. Baruwa’s national executives were there, all the Lagos State executives of NURTW, including the state chairman, Musiliu Akinsanya, were there, members of TOOAN board of trustees were also there, among others.

“Akinsanya [Oluomo] was told at the meeting that it was unconstitutional to hijack our activities. At the meeting, the BOT members were asked who they wanted to head TOOAN in Lagos State and they mentioned my name.

“On that same January 9, 2022, I was appointed the Lagos State Chairman, TOOAN, and the National Coordinator, Tricycle Sector, in Nigeria. The National President, NURTW, also made the announcement and told me and other appointees to wait to collect our letters of appointment. He also said the appointment letter should be sent to the Inspector-General of Police, Assistant Inspector-General of Police and the Department of Security Services in Abuja and Lagos, as well as all the security agents across the country.”

Azeez told The ICIR that it was on the strength of that appointment that he came back to Lagos to assume duties as the TOOAN chairman in the state. He was, thereafter, invited for an urgent meeting by MC Oluomo. But the meeting turned violent and, as the TOOAN chairman said, he was only lucky to escape with his life.

Oluomo and Istijabah pictured together. Credit: PM News

He narrated, “After I was appointed in Abuja, I booked a flight to Lagos. As I got to the airport in Ikeja, I received a text message from Akinsanya, notifying me of an emergency meeting the following day.

He narrated, “I got to the venue around 11am, got down from my vehicle and went straight to sign attendance. I was signing when somebody suddenly slapped me from behind. As I turned back, I saw that it was one of Akinsanya’s (Oluomo’s) boys, called Ajiroba. I was questioning his audacity when about 20 of Akinsanya’s boys descended on me and two of my excos, Kazeem Akinbode and Saheed. I had the grace to rush to my car and as I entered, I told my driver to lock the doors. But my boys were unlucky as they pinned them down and beat them mercilessly. They have been hospitalised and responding to treatment.

“Akinsanya’s boys started attacking my vehicle but could not gain enyry. Akinsanya, who told his boys to lock the gate to prevent my driver from driving out, later came down, and told me to open the door, but I declined. I told him his plan was to take my life. He told me I want to waste my life and my appointment would not stand.”

The acting National Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Alhaji Najeem Yasin, has said the Congress would soon invite the leadership of both the NURTW headquarters and its Lagos chapter for an amicable resolution. He also noted in a press briefing on Sunday that the labour union would not fold its arms and allow the crisis to degenerate.

Azeez told The ICIR he would abide by the directives of the state government to suspend the union’s activities.

He said, “Now that the Lagos State government has suspended union activities, everyone needs to follow the order. Anything the governor decides, we all have to abide by it.”

Azeez Abiola also known as Istijaba. Credit: NewsBeats NG

Lagos NURTW and culture of deaths, violence

The Lagos NURTW has a notoriety for violent conduct in its operations and its intra- and inter-personal relations. Its enforcers take no prisoners in their mandate of collecting dues from commercial vehicles. A commercial bus driver, or a commercial tricycle or motorcycle rider who fails to quickly respond to a Lagos NURTW enforcer’s demand to pay the required toll risks a telling damage to his vehicle.

If the driver or rider further wants to prove uncooperative, he gets resounding slaps to his face or a thorough beating. In occasional cases, like when it rains heavily and commuters are trapped at bus stops, or anytime buses are just scarce for whatever reason, it is the enforcers who dictate fares drivers should collect from commuters, jacking the fares up. The higher the fares, the more the enforcer gets from each bus.

The enforcers are lords unto themselves, assured of protection from the topmost leadership of their union in the state, who are themselves well covered from arrest and prosecution by top political leaders and security operatives. The police seem helpless in the entire
the arrangement, as orders from above and their own individual interest, enable the illegalities to run unchallenged, That is simply how the system works.

The huge monies accruing from the transport union business cannot but make rivalry intense as the leaders seek to cancel one another out to reach the top. In October 2021, three members of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) were shot dead by armed men suspected to be members of the NURTW. The NURTW members were said to have invaded the RTEAN park at Apapa about 9.15 pm in a violent clash over toll collection from truck drivers.



In January 2022, another bloody clash among NURTW members grounded business activities on Lagos Island. In a viral video, a young man in blue shorts with machete cuts all over his body was seen being in a wheelbarrow away from the scene  Another part of the video showed some cutlass-wielding men daring one another, while some traders were seen scampering to safety.

Following the clash, security operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) arrested Azeez Adekunle Lawal a.k.a. Kunle Poly, and Mustapha Adekunle, popularly known as Tafa Seigo, two strong leaders of the Lagos NURTW controlling the Lagos Island end of the pie, in connection with the fracas. Kunle Poly had himself escaped death on January 23, 2018 when some assassins trailed him to Idumota, his base, and opened fire on his car. While he was lucky to bolt away, the assassins killed his personal assistant, one Ganiyu Ayinla, alias Pinero.




     

     

    Kunle Poly. Credit: Famous Naija

    The police arrested, Adeola Williams, alias Ade Lawyer, and John Oladokun, alias John Ibafo, two men believed to be assassins for some Lagos NURTW leaders. Ade Lawyer actually confessed to the police to have killed over 100 persons in the course of his assassination job; Ibafo had a reputation as a psychopath who killed at will. The police later said the two had been “wasted” while attempting to escape. Ade Lawyer, during interrogation, mentioned a top NURTW leader who had once angled for the juicy Lagos NURTW chairman’s position, as giving him the hit job to eliminate Kunle Poly.

    Oluomo, too, had a close shave with death on January 8, 2019, when a rival NURTW hoodlum stabbed him at an All Progressives Congress (APC) campaign in Ikeja. He was rushed to the Eko Hospital on Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way and later flown abroad for treatment.

    It is widely believed that Oluomo has very close ties with some political lords in the state, hence the unwillingness of the state and security authorities to rein in the NURTW enforcers as they perpetually perpetrate their excesses. The allegation is out there that the enforcers come in handy as thugs during elections. Oluomo, however, maintained he was a law-abiding citizen.

    Read part 2 ‘here‘.

    Experienced Business reporter seeking the truth and upholding justice. Covered capital markets, aviation, maritime, road and rail, as well as economy. Email tips to jolaoluwa@icirnigeria.org. Follow on Twitter @theminentmuyiwa and on Instagram @Hollumuyiwah.

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