The Zone ‘B’ Chairman of Tricycle Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria (TOOAN), an arm of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade Monsuru Agbabiaka, has said there is no overall chairman for the operators of tricycles in Lagos state.
Agbabiaka said: “What we have in Lagos is just zonal operation and we have five zones with five chairmen. The idea to decentralise the leadership of the association was to ensure that the association has seamless operation and coordination. There was never an election where a single was elected as the state chairman of Tricycle Operators and Owners Association of Nigerian (TOOAN) and no one should be referred to as such.”
Agbabiaka said the Zone ‘C’ Chairman of the association, Alhaji Azeez Abiola (aka Istijabah) was being over-ambitious and has eyes on the position of the Lagos Council Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya (aka MC Oluomo).
He said: “The TOOAN is an affiliate body to the Lagos State Council NURTW and it is currently under the leadership of the union chairman, Alhaji Akinsanya. The association has been under NURTW for decades and things have been fine. The recent crisis being fuelled by Abiola and his claim that he’s the state chairman of the tricycle body is just to cause crisis in the state and tarnish the image of the NURTW Chairman.
“We are aware that he enjoys the support of the National President of the union, and I can tell you that his involvement is an abuse of office because Lagos state TOOAN is affiliated to the state chapter of NURTW and not the national body. We won’t fold our arms to let those who don’t have much stake in Lagos cause problems for us. Although, the state Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has wisely intervened in the issue but Istijabah continues parading himself as the state chairman. I think that confirms that he’s hell-bent on causing crises in the state but we won’t fold our arms to let the matter degenerate to the extent that the state government will be forced to do what will affect the operations of members of the union because we have over 15,000 workers across the state.”