By SCM Correspondent I Sunday, 05, 2025
IBADAN, Oyo – The Court of Appeal sitting in Ibadan, Oyo State, has set aside the suspension of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state, declaring the 2019 action by Governor Seyi Makinde as unlawful.
The three-man panel, in a judgment delivered on Friday, ruled that the Oyo State Government failed to provide concrete evidence of any breach of peace or public order that would justify the suspension of the union’s activities.
The judgment effectively overturns the decision of a lower court, marking a significant legal victory for the trade union.
Governor Makinde had, on May 31, 2019, ordered the proscription of the NURTW’s operations in the state, citing an alleged breach of peace and announcing the immediate takeover of all motor parks by the state government.
Challenging the move, the union filed a suit at the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) on July 19, 2021, seeking to nullify the governor’s order. The NICN, however, dismissed the suit on March 23, 2022, stating it lacked merit.
Dissatisfied, the NURTW escalated the matter to the Court of Appeal on April 22, 2022. The union argued that the state government lacked the legal authority to suspend the operations of a trade union, which is registered under the Trade Union Act CAP T14 and falls under the Exclusive Legislative List of the 1999 Constitution.
The union’s counsel, Mr. Femi Falana SAN, raised critical questions, including whether the Governor and his agents were legally empowered to suspend a trade union. He also submitted that there was no evidence of a breakdown of law and order to justify the state’s action.
The Attorney-General of Oyo State, Mr. Abiodun Aikomo, had argued that the suspension was a necessary response to a breakdown of law and order.
However, the Court of Appeal, in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Kenneth Ikechukwu Amadi, found the state government’s defence unsubstantiated.
Justice Amadi held: “Nowhere in the counter affidavit filed by the respondents at the lower court did they aver that the conduct of the appellant warranted a suspension on the grounds of breach of peace, law, and order… I therefore hold that the respondents failed to justify the suspension of the activities of the appellant based on the ground of breach of peace, law and order in Oyo State caused by the union. I allow this appeal, set aside the suspension on the operations of NURTW in Oyo State. I also set aside the judgment of the lower court.”
Concurring Judgment Criticizes State’s Action
Concurring with the lead judgment, Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill sharply criticized the state government’s approach, emphasizing that while the state has the authority to maintain law and order, it must operate strictly within the law.
Justice Georgewill stated that the respondents “did not prove the existence of any acts of violence against the appellant by merely mouthing violence in its counter affidavit without setting forth the acts of the appellant and concrete evidence.”
He further held that even if the union’s activities were violent, such acts should be checked by relevant security agencies, including the police.
He concluded that the state government could not resort to “another form of illegality… by suspending the activities of the appellant, since the state government does not have any such powers outside of laws of the land.”
