RTEAN crisis: Industrial Court restrains 7 officials as national executive members

By Albert Akota

The National Industrial Court presided by Justice Sanusi Kado on Friday in Abuja restrained Alhaji Musa Mohammed and six others from parading themselves as National Executive Council members of Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).
The court gave the order following an application brought by Mr Osakpanmwan Eriyo, national president of the union and argued by their council Olayiwole Afolabi and Simon Ezenwa.
The Judge in his ruling, ordered the defendants to desist from further harassing, intimidating and subjecting members of the claimant to inhuman treatment pending hearing and determination of the motion on notice already before the court.
The judge further restrained them from holding offices in any capacity as servants, agents, assigns, appointees, privies or whatsoever connected to RTEAN.
“This includes operations and businesses pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice already filed along with the originating process,’’Kado said.
The National Executive Council of RTEAN had last Wednesday threatened to suspend Mohammed, Chairman of the dissolved Lagos State Executive Council, for allegedly disrupting the activities of the union.
The national body insisted that the dissolution of the Lagos State Executive Council on Sept. 13 remained legal and binding.
He reiterated that the expiration of the branch’s tenure as provided in Article 9(I) of the association’s constitution as the reason for the dissolution.
It would be recalled that Lagos State Executive Council members, on Monday disagreed with the action of the national body, describing the dissolution as illegal, null and void, saying that their tenure would lapse on Oct. 31.
They said that the resolution for the continuity of their executive committee had been passed at the chapel, zonal and state executive levels, adding that it had since been forwarded to the national body.