Muted discontents among members of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in Ekiti State against perceived high-handedness of its leader, Mr. Rotimi Olanbiwonninu, has degenerated into a free-for-all in which dangerous objects were used by rival factions to prosecute a supremacy battle. The leadership has stepped down as a national Fact Finding Committee fills the space in the interim, writes Sulaiman Salawudeen
Penultimate Friday in Ado-Ekiti, capital of the State, was unlike most other days as residents tasted the bitter pill of unrest and fear arising mainly from violent opposition of some members of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) to the leadership of the Association led by its Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Olanbiwonninu (aka Mentilo).
Although the day started on a peaceful note, it did not however end well within the association as some members mounted road blocks and made bonfires at strategic locations including Old Garage, Okeyinmi, Ojumose,, Ijigbo and Ajilosun Roads. in Ado Ekiti, the state capital to voice their grievance against what they variously described as ‘highhandedness’ and ‘iron fist’ rule of the State Chairman.
They divided themselves into groups, armed with dangerous weapons and drove their vehicles at dangerous speeds, visiting the motor parks to forcibly dislodge members seen as loyal to Olanbiwonninu.
Shops and businesses were forced into an early closure while pedestrian and vehicular movements also ceased prematurely, especially around Old Garrage and Ijigbo-Ajilosun areas, as cries of agony from t5he injured proceeded intermittently from the motor parks to sully what remained of the evening.
Thick, black smoke rose into and hung heavy in the air as bellows of fire wailed from burning tyres at several spots around the axis of mayhem, while largely faceless daredevils brandished fearful weapons to corral perceived opposition into vacating the motor parks, the control and administration of which, according to findings, had been at the roots of the problem.
The aggrieved parties which comprised the State Secretary, Comrade Sesan Ogunlade; Deputy Chairman, Mr. Sunday Adeola; Chapel Chairman, Olokemeji, Mr. Ajayi Kayode; Chapel Chairman, Ureje, Adeniyi Adebayo (aka Ojuigo); Prince Adewale Abiodun Fagbewesa; Fadairo Akinwale and a minimum of twenty six other chapel chairmen were united by a mission to dislodge Mentilo and “restore a regime of peace and mutual progress to the 17-year-old Union”, insisting that the 8-year reign of the State Chairman must end.
In consequence, Policemen and later men of the Nigeria Army were drafted to mount guards at several spots to curb further escalation of unrest. The police at a point were forced to fire tear gas shots into the rampaging horde of disgruntled park touts, making residents, especially those staying around Okeyinmi, Ojumose, Ijigbo and Ajilosun areas shed tears right inside their homes and business centres.
Soon as the tear gas dissipated, the surging soldiers of opposition to the beleaguered Mentilo, who wore fearful looks, returned to the scenes to maintain the glow of unrest. They kept daring the opposition to come out and challenge them and even the police, pacing up and down. At a point, about four separate detachments of policemen failed in the attempt to rein in the throbbing horde.
By the time the dust settled after six consecutive days of unrest and uncertainty, no fewer than five members comprising mainly those loyal to the troubled Chairman and two police officers, had been taken to the hospitals for treatment, but no life, as findings revealed, was lost.
The intervention of National Executive Council
The National Executive Council (NEC) of the Association intervened by sending down a five-member Fact finding Committee to take over affairs of the association in the State as the current leadership led by Rotimi Olanbiwonninu was asked to step aside from the office to enable the Committee investigate the causes and make recommendations to NEC.
Earlier, the National President, Alhaji Shehu Musa Isiwele had held a meeting with the factions attended by the State Chairman, Olanbiwonninu and the Secretary, Com. Ogunlade after which they were directed to allow the Chairman to serve out his term, a recommendation which was rejected and which immediately caused hiccups.
Just before this meeting, there had been an earlier one held with the groups attended by the National President in which the State Governor Kayode Fayemi denied ever giving Olanbiwonninu N100 million which he was alleged of having mismanaged and which was believed primarily responsible for the problem. Neither of the meetings could bring the situation under control.
The Committee led by Comrade Philip Nwaigbo from Imo State as chairman, has other members which included Alhaji Lahan Yusuf, Secretary (Kwara), Alhaji Ayinde Rumokun (Lagos) Alhaji Rasak Durojaye (Ogun) and Comrade Adewale Ojo (Ondo).
The Nwaigbo Committee is expected to complete its assignment by January 19 and return to the national secretariat of the association with a report on the findings.
Meanwhile, as at last weekend, the whereabouts of the embattled Chairman, were unknown and efforts to trace it proved fruitless.
While some believed he was arrested by the Force Headquartres in Abuja, others said it was the Directorate of State Security (DSS). Even the Police in the State could offer no assistance in this regard.
Allegations against Mentilo
Allegations against the administration of the beleaguered Olanb-iwonninu included high-handedness and arrogating too much powers. Others, according to a list of 30 misconducts contained in a letter forwarded by the aggrieved members to NEC, included converting in various ways the Association’s property into his own; victimisation and use of divide and rule method to foist trouble within the Association; selling of ‘priority’ to his wife, girlfriends and cronies and physical and routine brutalisation of chapel chairmen and ranking members of the Association.
Noting that a sum of a hundred million given to the Association by the State government had equally vanished, they explained the Chairman had also sacked some elected members of the Association on spurious accusations of being opposed to his administration while a sum of N250,000 contributed by members as support for an ailing member of the association who was on admission at the State Teaching hospital was equally denied him. But, both the State Governor and the National President have denied that Olanbiwonninu collected any such amount.
The National President had said: “It is the leaders of the union that are causing the fight. We will take care of that and as soon as I leave this place, I will see the Commissioner of Police and I will decide the matter before I leave this State”, he said.
One of the aggrieved members spoke: “For about one year now, he had sacked some old members from participating in all activities and had appointed his own family members to replace those ones. You too can confirm all I am saying as a journalist.
“While doing all these, he goes about accusing those he has been punishing as belonging to rival political camps to curry the favour of the current administration and sustain his punishment on his supposed enemies”, he said.
How did things get so worse?
More facts have however emerged concerning the reasons members of the Association were up in arms against Olanbiwonninu. A member named Adeniyi Adebayo (aka Ojuigo), said: “The State Chairman has a long history of abuse of the privileges of his position. So many members have one terrible history or the other to tell about him”.
Adeniyi, Chapel Chairman, Ureje park, Ado-Ekiti who disclosed he had been placed on suspension through a letter from the Chairman, recalled that since he assumed leadership of the park, he (the chairman) had denied him all the privileges of the position. Said he:”He did not allow me to carry priority. Priority means you are given priority to load passengers at the park anytime irrespective of whether it was your turn or not. Once you are in the park, the turn is automatically your own.
“But as the chairman, I have the privilege of priority in six units, including Akure, Ikere, Benin, Ondo-Ore, Akungba and Ise. Mentilo sold the six priorities to those he wanted. As the state chairman, Mentilo should not sell priority to members of the union because when he does that he removes every respect you have as Chapel chairman and this is exactly what he does to me and many of our members.
“Again, given the size of the state, he has access to only five vehicles. But our Chairman has 13 buses which are engaged in priority all over the garages; which means no chapel chairman has priority. Wherever he did not have a bus, he would sell the priority to a member of that Garage and collect N9000. In Ado-Ekiti alone, he has 13 buses and has sold 6 priorities. His child and wife have priorities.
“You may wish to know how I got the fresh wounds on my body and my face. He was in Abuja last Friday for an event and called Alhaji Kuraku, Akin Falae, Ojo Ghana, Kasali KSK and Olu Ofunoye who are ranking members of Mentilo Vanguard to come and beat me up. I was then in front of Wema Bank. They all came to ask me where I got the letter I took to Emure and Ise to sign with chapel chairmen, I asked them what letter. They were referring to the letter that thirty chapel chairmen signed and forwarded to the headquartres. I was not among those selected to sign but they never allowed me to defend myself.
“While it is true that someone was carrying his impeachment letter about which was the chairman of Ise, Mathew Arogundade, I am not Arogundade. He most possibly would have known this but, because of his longstanding hatred for me, he said they should include my name among those who wanted to get him out. They applied physical beating and cutlasses on me.
“It was that day that all the Chairmen generally, numbering 38, decided that it was time for him to go. In all this, Mentilo Vanguard has been responsible. The vanguard is the hit squad,” Adeniyi said.
Prince Adewale Abiodun Fagbewesa’s experience was however farther into time. In his account, Fagbewesa explained that on a Saturday in 2006, he had an accident on a commercial motorcycle while returning home after work at Ijigbo and he was taken to the hospital, adding that on Monday, he returned to the park at Ajibade lane with his car and sat down.
“When they saw me after I came down from my car, Mazda 323, they brought a chair for me and I sat down and around 9 in the morning Mentilo came to the park and people greeted him bending their whole body.
“I could not do this as I was not even comfortable on the seat. I felt like returning home. When he moved closer to my seat, I could only gesture slightly although respectfully as I was not well. He approached me and I bowed very well on my seat again. He queried that why did I greet him like that? I, as well as the others explained that I just had an accident and showed him this.
“His next move was to give me a serious and heavy slap on my face, blaming me for disrespecting him. I then told him he is a horrible leader and what he did was bad. He accused me of confronting him. He carried a big stone and smashed all the glasses on my car, including the windscreen.
“Later, I went to the police station where I reported the case. When the police came, Mentilo Vanguard did not allow them to carry the vandalised car. Later, the DPO Okesa ordered again that the car should be evacuated to his station which the officers did. He (Mentilo) came to the station and agreed to settle amicably. I agreed as I did not have anywhere else to go or any other work. Oga (referring to the reporter), can you believe that Mentilo did not repair my vehicle till today in open and total defiance of an agreement with the police. I later repaired the car myself as that is my only means of livelihood.
In his own account, Fadairo Akinwale, a unit chairman in the association, said on January 17, 2013, Mentilo Vanguard came to his shop in Tosin Aluko Motor Park while preparing to travel. He explained that the Vanguard destroyed his wife’s shop where they sell beer and pepper soup. “They did that because I refused to join the Mentilo Vanguard because the Vanguard members were known to have been committing various atrocities,” he said.
He clarified that Vanguard had invited him earlier to join them to sack Ojuigo who was the Chapel chairman, adding that he called Ojuigo himself and told him the plans of the Vanguard.
Said he: ”About twenty of us held that secret meeting on January 12. But on the 17, they came to my wife’s shop and destroyed the entire place. How do I regain what was destroyed because it ran into millions of naira. Other accounts by members brought more revelations regarding how the state chairman had allegedly committed a crime for which he must now pay with his position.”
The involvement of the association secretary and other executive members
But, what thickens the plot against the state chairman was not just that nearly 30 Chapel Chairmen have one unsavoury story or the other to tell about their now troubled leader but that even the association secretary, Comrade Sesan Ogunlade is uncomfortable and has fallen out with the state chairman in respect of his alleged misdeeds. So also is the deputy chairman and twelve out of fourteen members of the state executive who have joined all chapel chairmen to petition the national leadership of the association rejecting Olanbiwonninu’s leadership.
Ogunlade explained that he had conferred with the chairman many times regarding his habitual high-handedness but which has not got him swayed desirably.
Mentilo’s deputy, Sunday Adeola also spoke of what he called “the atrocities of the chairman,” saying “if I begin to tell you what he has done to me, to our members in the exco, to chapel chairmen and unit heads, we will not leave this place today. Anything I say now, I can say it in his presence as I have done before.
The embattled state chairman’s defence
In his defense, the embattled chairman Rotimi Olanbiwonninu denied the allegations of high-handedness and collecting N100 million from Governor Fayemi. He told The Nation that on the day the problem started, he was in Abuja being a member of the National Executive Council which was then billed to meet President Goodluck Jonathan on appointment.
Said he: “When we heard of the development, the National President advised me to leave and return. I was coming back and when I got to Okene, I gathered that I was actually the target and that I was being asked to go.
He denied having spent more than eight years, clarifying that he assumed position in 2007, “which makes my administration just six years in office and not eight,” adding it was equally wrong to accuse him of being high-handed and inconsiderate when he does not meddle in the responsibilities and functions of other members of the state executive.
Olanbiwonninu said: “How can they accuse me of running a one man show. That cannot be true. At the chapel level, they have an executive which is independent of the state. At the unit level, they also have an executive council. It is impossible that I would be running the chapel and unit on my own.
He noted that it was true that he had been commending the state governor for his good works and development efforts in the state as government’s efforts on roads had benefitted his members more than any other segment of the state. “I have also not collected any N100 million from government as they are saying. If I have such money, I will change my business,” he said.
On the allegation that he uses Mentilo Vanguard to witch-hunt and oppress members, the troubled chairman admitted that there was a Vanguard, the founding and operations of which belongs to members of the association “who admire me and who said they wanted to appreciate my good works in the association by forming a group with that name.”
He also clarified that so far, the state government has given the association a total of 16 buses and 40 cars which he instructed the state Public Relations Officer (PRO) to distribute according to laid down procedures with my deputy, secretary and other members of the executive having their own shares.
“You can investigate yourself and find out that majority of the functions of the administration, I hand them over to the deputy and the secretary. The secretary is the head of administration. He is not to be a spare tyre.
As the pronouncement of the national president is awaited
The verdict of the National President is now being awaited. The Fact Finding Committee currently on board in the state will conclude its brief coming Saturday, January 18 and will submit its report on 19th which will be a Sunday. It is on that day that the National President is expected to make a pronouncement on what happens next.
While it is unclear who the association had resolved to pick as the next state chairman, the findings had indicated that the aggrieved parties have vowed to resume the war should the pronouncement return the current state chairman to the office.
According to them, “It is a clear no retreat, no surrender situation. The association is prepared to ensure that a new leadership is installed. We have already forgotten the misdeeds of Mentilo, but should attempts be made to return him here, heads will roll.”
