Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has said the ultimatum given to the government by the South West leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) to reverse the appointment of park managers and lift the ban on the activities of the union in the state was of no effect.
Makinde in a statement issued by his Press Secretary, Taiwo Adisa while debunking claims that the state appointed its former members to oversee parks operations told the Union to go and learn how to respect law as it maintained that its activities remained suspended in the state.
“They should go and learn how to abide by the law because anybody who attempts to put Oyo state into crisis whether the long or short arm of the law will catch up with the person.
“The simple thing to say is that, the commentators from the NURTW side got the story wrong and are interpreting it wrongly. They are saying that the State Government has appointed one of their own, their former union member as Park Manager, that is the person of Mr Lamidi Mukaila, aka Auxiliary, but that is not true, there is nothing like that.
“Mr Mukaila Lamidi, Auxilliary has not been appointed as a park manager in any way. He is not a Park Manager, but the Chairman of the disciplinary Committee.
“The job of the Disciplinary Committee is straight forward. If there is any controversy between or among the stakeholders, that is the Park managers and the state government or the Park Managers and the Ministry of Works, or the Park managers and the consultants, the consultants are the direct supervisors of the Park Managers.
“The commissioner for Works is also a direct supervisor of the park managers. The Disciplinary Committee is just standing on its own and when there are issues for disciplinary actions between or among the stakeholders. So, where there is no issue that calls for disciplinary actions, the Disciplinary Committee will just be standing on its own.
“The Disciplinary Committee is not involved in the day to day running of any park, so, there is no issues about the appointment of Mr Lamidi as a Park Manager, he is not a park Manager by any means and so they should not confuse the two things. That is just by the way” the statement said.
On the issue of ultimatum to government, he said “The ultimatum is no issue because Oyo state has no business with any ultimatum. Those people that spoke, are they stakeholders in Oyo state? Are they stakeholders in the running of affairs in Oyo state? If they have any issues with their own states they should take such to their Governors and the Governors of their various states. As far as we are concerned in Oyo state, NURTW is suspended in Oyo state” it added.
