Emmanuel Ukudolo
November 6, 2015 – Ojodu, a suburb of Lagos was thrown into confusion this morning as motor park drivers who are members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers(NURTW) and Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria(RETEAN) threw caution to the wind, protesting failure of their chairman, Mr. Tokunbo Seriki who was defeated in an election to hand over to the new chairman.
The protest which was quite orderly drew attention of passersby to the plight of the drivers and their conductors who were not too happy about the situation.
Chairman Ayobo Branch, NURTW, Comrade Oluwase Sijuade said the embattled chairman came to office in 2009 and reigned for three terms until recently.
“We conducted election and he lost, but he has refused to hand over”, he said. He said that the embattled chairman misappropriated N48 million belonging to cooperative society and another N150 million which was contributed by the drivers over a period of three years for purchase of land.
Pointing to the land, he said, “the former chairman said government wants to take over this land and we contributed N150 million to buy that land. He did not buy the land, he ran away with the money”, he said, adding that the N48 million cooperative money was embezzled during his tenure as chairman of the branch.
He said that what they are however asking for is for him to just leave so that the new chairman can take over operation of the park.
“The problem is that he was elected as branch chairman in January 1999, he ran for 3 tenure and his tenure has expired. We conducted election and he lost but he refused to hand over to the next man, we want him to go.
“He stole the N48 million which was cooperative money when he was in power. Then this land, he said government wants to take over the land, and we contributed N150 million which he said will be used to buy that land(pointing to another land nearby), he did not buy the land , he took the money away”, Sijuola told our reporter.
