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Oluwatosin Ejalonibu
The Ogun state government has cleared the air on the commencement of activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers in the state .
The Chairman, Ogun state Park and Garages Development Agency , Habib Ajayi made the pronouncement on Thursday during an interview with newsmen in Abeokuta .
Ajayi said the government had no problem with the NURTW led by Alhaj Mustapha Ismail popularly known as Yaro to function as a union in the state .
The Chairman Parks and Garages Development Agency’s comment was in a reaction to the planned commencement of union activities in all the parks and Garages across the state on Monday .
There had been internal crisis among the members of the union ,but, had been resolved with the opening of the union Secretariat in Asero, Abeokuta last year .
Ajayi emphasized that the state government does not interfere in the activities of unions.
He however explained that there are park managers who monitor and implement Government policies in parks and garages across the state.
He said “My name is wale Habeeb Ajayi , I am the chairman of the Ogun State Parks and Garages Development Agency.
“What I know is that NURTW is one of the operators in the parks and garages in Ogun State and I also know that recently there is a little bit of leadership tussle in that particular trade union and the position of the government is that activities of the agency, it doesn’t dabble into the affairs of the unions.
“As a matter of fact, their internal affairs strictly belongs to them, what we do in the agency is to do effective monitoring and the implementation of government policy in the transport sector, particularly in the parks and garages.
” As far as we are concerned, we don’t have a strict position, the only position we have is that we do not interfere in the internal affairs of any trade union particularly those that form part of our operators..”
On the commencement of the activities in the parks and Garages in the state, “that they want to commence on Monday, it is a good development if they have resolved their leadership crisis and activities are return back to normal.
“All I care is that the Ogun State government has the park managers as its own agents for the purpose of collecting the revenue of government, that is not to say that transport unions or trade unions can not engage in their activities by collection of dues among the members of the union.
“if the union you are talking about has resolved their leadership tussle and they want to collect union dues from their union members, I think we have no problem with that, for us in Ogun State the union activities remains the activities of the union.
“What the government does is to ensure that there is no crisis, the tussle is free of violence and that we must continue to stress.
“We don’t want violence in our parks, we don’t want thuggery, all we want is that let them come around the garages and parks, while those operators will do their business.
“For us if they have resolved fine, it is their own perogative.”
He also urged all trade unions in Ogun state to shun violence and make parks and garages condusive for commuters.
