The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to direct the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), to instruct the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun, to remove the “illegal occupant” of the office of the National Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).
The group expressed concern over the alleged disregard for the law by Mr Musiliu Akinsanya, former Chairman of the Lagos State Parks and Management Committee, who has continued to act as the national president of the NURTW despite court rulings against him.
HURIWA described the open defiance of the judgements of both the National Industrial Court and the Court of Appeal by Akinsanya, allegedly aided by the police, as a grave affront to the rule of law.
In a statement issued yesterday, the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, criticised what he called the selective enforcement of court judgments by the present administration.
He alleged that the government often allows the disobedience of lawful court orders when they involve political allies of the president but swiftly enforces judgments against perceived rivals.
“We are appalled and shocked that the government conveniently looks the other way when judgments are not favourable to the political allies of the president, such as in the case of the Osun State local government councils, which are currently occupied by rebellious members of the President’s political party, the All Progressives Congress,” Onwubiko said.
HURIWA condemned the president’s silence on the matter, noting that his political ally, Akinsanya, lost the leadership of the NURTW at the Court of Appeal but has continued to occupy the office with the alleged support of the police.
In November 2024, the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld an earlier judgment of the National Industrial Court recognising Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa as the legitimate president of the union.
Baruwa, who had already served a four-year term, was re-elected in August 2023 for a second term, three months before the end of his first tenure as provided in the union’s constitution.
However, a faction of the union led by former president and current chairman of its Board of Trustees (BoT), Najeem Usman Yasin, disputed the re-election, prompting the police in the Federal Capital Territory to arrest and detain Baruwa several times.
Yasin later dissolved the National Administrative Council led by Baruwa and set up a National Caretaker Committee to manage the affairs of the union.
Baruwa and 13 others, including the NURTW as a corporate entity, subsequently filed a suit at the National Industrial Court to challenge the dissolution.
HURIWA has now urged the president to uphold the rule of law by directing the Attorney-General and the Inspector-General of Police to enforce the court judgments and remove the alleged illegal occupant from the union’s national headquarters in Abuja.
The group also called on President Tinubu to order the expulsion of the “illegal occupiers” of local council offices in Osun State, who it claimed were being protected by armed police officers to maintain their unlawful hold on power.
