Lagos insists Parks Ad-Hoc Committee Legal

No doubt, the Lagos state government is not happy with the verdict of the National Industrial Court that nullified a purported caretaker committee from managing the garages and parks in the state and reinstated the operations of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).

The government described the caretaker committee as purported because, as it claimed,  at no time did it inaugurate a body with such name and that the only committee it created was the Garages and Park Administrators Ad-hoc Committee to oversee its garages and parks.

It has therefore dissociated its own committee from the one addressed in the judgment given in the case brought against the Lagos State Government by RTEAN insisting that both are not the same.

It said the Garages and Parks Administrators Ad-Hoc Committee has not been nullified by the Court.

This is the kernel of the case that the Lagos State Government will argue when the appeal comes up soon.

Recall that RTEAN instituted a suit with ID number: NICN/LA/381/2022, in October 2022 to challenge the Lagos State government for allegedly dissolving the elected executive committee of its union in the state and appointing a caretaker body, known as the Parks and Garages Administrators.

The defendants in the case are the Governor, the Attorney-General of the state, and Sola Giwa, who is the Special Adviser to the state governor on transportation.

In her judgement, Justice Maureen Esowe  held that the act of the Lagos State government in suspending the national union operations in the state and setting up a caretaker committee is illegal and against the provisions of Sections 4 (1), (2)& (3), and 5 (1) &(3), read along with item 34 of the exclusive legislative list, of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

However the counsel to the state,  Adebayo Haroun held that government did not violate the law nor dissolve any union national body’s operations in the state but had sought to maintain law and order by creating an ad-hoc committee when violence ensued between the unions.

He said, “The government issued a document to ensure public safety and order. And since the ad-hoc committee was set up, there has been peace,”

Giving her verdict, Justice Esowe however held that the government and the Police should have intervened by arresting and prosecuting those behind the fracas and not to set up a committee to usurp the union executive.

Disturbed by the judgement , the state has begun a process to appeal the judgement as the Ministry of Justice has requested for a copy of the judgment to enable it study and raise more counter-arguments on why the verdict of the Lower Court should not stand

In a statement by the Director of Public Affairs, Mrs. Grace Alo, Lagos Ministry of Justice, the state government said it has applied for the copy of the judgement and would be filing an appeal.

The statement reads in part, “Our attention has been drawn to reports on various media about a Judgment delivered by Honourable Justice Maureen Esowe in respect of Suit No NICN/LA/381/2022 between Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria and the Executive Governor of Lagos State and 36 others.

The statement argued that It is on record that what the Lagos State Government set up is known as the Lagos State Park Administrators Ad-Hoc Committee on the Operations of Commercial Road Transport Workers Activities within Garages and Motor Parks and not a Caretaker Committee.

It stated that the Ad-hoc committee was not set up to run the affairs of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in Lagos State as being interpreted by the association.

With this argument, the statement said that the reliefs sought from the court by the claimant, which includes a declaration that the purported dissolution of the Elected Executive Committee of the claimant operating in Lagos State and appointment of a Care-taker Committee to run its affairs in Lagos State had nothing to do with the Lagos State Park Administrators Ad-Hoc Committee and its functions.

It stated that several of the reports in the media had mistakenly attributed to the Judgement that the Lagos State Park Management Committee (Committee) has been dissolved.

“The validity of the Lagos State Park Management Committee was not an issue before the Court and the Committee was not a party to the suit. The dissolution of the Committee is totally unrelated to the issues before the Court”,  it stated.

However, the statement said that the Lagos State Government had applied for the Certified True Copy of the Judgement and intends to file an appeal in respect of same.

“All affected parties are enjoined to remain calm and be law abiding,” it said.

There has been renewed hostilities in the transport sector following the verdict as loyalists of  RTEAN and Garages and Parks trade words over the orders of the courts.

No date has been fixed to hear the appeal