The National Industrial Court has annulled the Lagos State government’s appointment of a Caretaker Committee, known as Parks and Garages Administrators and reinstated the service of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).
RTEAN filed a lawsuit against the state government and others for suspending its operations, taking over garages and appointing an ad hoc body, known as the Parks and Garages Administrators
The Lagos state government had argued before the presiding judge, Justice Maureen Esowe, that they did not violate the law nor dissolve the national body’s operations in the state, but they sought to maintain law and order by forming the ad-hoc committee when there was ruckus between the unions.
Justice Esowe however dismissed the defendants’ objections to the suit, saying the matter was clear and that the court has jurisdiction to hear and decide, with no serious dispute to warrant an exchange of pleadings.
She held that the action to suspend the National union’s operations by the State government and setting up a caretaker committee was illegal and against the provisions of Sections 4 (1), (2)& (3), and 5 (1) &(3), and item 34 of the exclusive legislative list, of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.
The judge stated in addition that the government and the Police should have arrested and prosecuted those behind the commotion and should not have inquired into the dispute.
Justice Esowe placed a restrain on the Lagos State government from interfering with the functions of the union’s exco and ordered the police to desist from intimidating the union’s officers and to remove all barricades it has placed around their secretariat and grant them unrestricted access to their offices.
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