Comrade Rafiu Olohunwa Akanni says
Transporting election materials in Nigeria on Election Day, including Lagos, is for NURTW and not any other body.
By Uzor Odigbo
National Union of Transport Workers (NURTW) has said that they are the ones in charge of providing logistics in terms of transporting election materials for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Lagos and not Lagos State Parks and Garage Agency (LASPARK).
This is was disclosed during an emergency meeting on Thursday where the NURTW said that it has more-than nine years Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with INEC for the transportation of election materials on election days, insisting the MOU also covers Lagos State.
Lagos State chairman of NURTW, Alhaji Fatai Adesina, in a brief remark said the union is fully ready to do their work which they are used to in delivering seamless election Materials in Lagos.
“We are the one in charge and we are ready to do what we have been doing to make sure Lagosians go out and see election materials on time to vote,” he said.
Oluwaseyi Bankole, the Lagos State secretary of NURTW, said it has been their duty all these years to transport election materials in Lagos and that they would not surrender that task to any other body.
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“This has been our work for over nine years now and we have been efficient on this work. We have high standard in doing it in every election year. There is an MOU we have with INEC and that is what we do.
“Distribution of election materials on election day is for National Union Road of Transport Workers alone and not for any other body. Like I said earlier, that is the MOU we had with IINEC over nine years ago.
“We do this with NARTO and also Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria. We and two agencies that signed the MOU with INEC only which has been in existence over nine years and we agreed on working that way every election year.
Handling INEC Electoral Materials is our work and it is only transporters that will do that under the name of NURTW.
“When you talk of Parks and Garage, it is an agency under a political party in Lagos under the State government. So giving the task to Park and Garage is like being submissive to only one of the many political parties which is unfair.”
On whether they have had any pact with Parks and Garages for the logistics ahead of the elections, he said: “ No, we can never have any pact with them. The national union has handled that and this MOU has come to stay.
“Signing an MOU which has been in existence for nine years and now in a month to an election to say you want to join can’t work.
“We own the drivers; we own the vehicles in Lagos State. In all the garages in Nigeria, we own the vehicles and the drivers. The government own the garages but we own the vehicles and the drivers.”
On the speculation that Lagos INEC has recognised Parks and Garages and saying nothing about NURTW, he said, “We are unaware about that, we saw and read in the news concerning that but I visited INEC office myself and had meeting with some of the officials there and they denied any such information.”
Comrade Rafiu Olohunwa Akanni, the special adviser to the national chairman of NURTW, Chief Tajudeen Baruwa representing South West, said INEC recognises the pact the union had with National Union. And there was a letter to that effect from INEC.
“Transporting election materials in Nigeria on Election day in all parts of Nigeria, including Lagos, is for NURTW and not for any other body.
“Before the election proper, INEC will let the general public know who are the authentic body to transport the election materials in the country, including Lagos.
“Parks and Garages are just in Lagos but NURTW entered into MOU for election materials transportation in states around the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, it will be recalled that Segun Agbaje, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, was quoted as saying that the commission was liaising with transport body in Lagos for effective logistics ahead of the general election in the state.