In separate telephone interviews with Dare Adekanmbi, wanted factional leaders of the Oyo State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Lateef Akinsola, also known as Tokyo, and his archrival, Alhaji Mukaila Lamidi, also called Auxiliary, speak about the constant mayhem among the union members and chart a peace roadmap for the transport workers' body in the state.How did you receive the news that a caretaker committee had been appointed for Oyo NURTW'The caretaker committee is an illegal body which will not stand because the judgment of the National Industrial Court (NIC), Abuja, is still on ground. The decision is tantamount to a contempt of court.With that judgment, when is your tenure going to end'My tenure will end by August this year, although the NIC verdict will expire on June 18, this year. We served the leadership of the union court papers stopping them from taking any decision on Oyo NURTW because I was not allowed to function as the reinstated chairman.You were recently disowned in a newspaper advertorial sponsored by some of the executive members that were reinstated with yourself.It is an exercise in futility.You confirmed the chairman of the caretaker committee to be from your group. So, in a way, it is your people who are in charge and this should have placated you.It is true that the new chairman, Taofeek Oyerinde, also called Fele, is from my group. But he is not a professional driver and therefore not a member of the union. He is just one of my bodyguards. I don't want him to be the chairman. I am still the chairman and I can't leave my post until my tenure lapses.Don't you think it is time for you to quit Oyo NURTW after you have been said to have spent more than 23 years as leader and given the fact that age is also not on your side'It is a great lie to say I have spent 23 years as NURTW leader in Oyo. Somebody has replied those who peddle this rumour on Splash FM.Ok. How many years have you spent'I have only spent five years. The constitution of the union gives room for a two -term tenure. I was just into the first year of my second term of office when they started their trouble and removed me illegally. I approached the court and I was vindicated and my prayers upheld by the court.Some of your members have said the treatment you got serves you right because you truncated the tenure of Chief James Ojewunmi.That is also another big lie. Ojewunmi had three terms. And I did allow him to have his three terms. But it was only the second term I was using before they started their trouble.But what are you going to do now that it appears nobody is talking about the verdict you got'I will not accept the decision of the national leadership of the union in constituting an illegal caretaker committee because I am still the validly elected state chairman of the NURTW in Oyo. I am not a man of violence and this is why I went to court to seek redress. The announcement is a contempt of court and I will challenge it.Are you saying you are going back to court to get an order to stop the committee from serving in the state'I have challenged it already and court has said no decision should be taken in that regard and so this committee is illegal and cannot stand.How do you think peace can return to Oyo NURTW'The only way to bring back peace to the union is to implement the court judgment I secured.There is no institution that is superior to the courts. Court is the last hope of the common man. The court has charted the path of peace which we must all follow and there will be peace.Which means you must be returned as chairman'Yes. I must be installed as Oyo NURTW chairman.But you were said to have been reinstated by the then police commissioner, Alhaji Bolanta and a particular court bailiff.But they did not allow us to function in office. Let us agree that I was reinstated. My judgment has not lapsed. On Friday, May 24 this year, I secured another court verdict which invalidated the banning of the union.Is it also true that you handed the union to politicians during your chairmanship'Don't mind them. Can someone in his right senses hand over his means of livelihood to any politician' To what end' They just keep feeding the public lies about me. When Senator Rashidi Ladoja was sworn in as the governor of the state, he accused me of not supporting him and looked for a trumped up murder case in Ogbomosho and roped me in that case and I was consequently locked up for no just cause over a matter I knew nothing about. After three years, I was left off the hook. There was an election afterwards and I won. I had not spent one year in office when Alao-Akala said I was not supporting him and I told him I was not a politician and I was removed from office. I went to court and got victory in the temple of justice. Ladoja installed Tawa (Abubakre) when he succeeded in locking me up. But court sacked him.You said you are not a politician but you were said to have boasted openly that you worked for the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN)'I voted for the ACN because it is my choice. Even you, who are asking me these questions, can vote for any party of your choice.What about the massacre in Iwo Road which you were accused by Auxiliary of being the mastermind'Don't mind him. I have also gone to court on that. I was not involved in the mayhem at all. If I was truly involved, court would not have given me leave of the reliefs which I sought therein.On that fateful day, a close associate was holding a social function and I was in attendance. Also, my daughter was graduating from Babcock University in Ogun State the following day. I went to court with the pictures of these events and I was exonerated by the court.You might not have been physically present but you could have sent some of your boys to carry out the attack on your opponent.That is another great lie. If it is true, the police would have come to arrest me. But they know I have got a judgment on that too. It was not my 'boys' who carried out the attack; it was Auxiliary and his boys who did.
Click here to read full news..
