A Chieftain and former Chairman of Egbeda Branch of the Natioanal Union Of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Oyo State Chapter, Prince Bankole Adeyonu has reemphasized for the second time within two weeks that a change in the leadership of the Union in Oyo State is inevitable. He insisted that there is only one NURTW in Oyo state, that the recent development is nothing new but normal occurrences.
Prince Bankole stated this on Wednesday in Ibadan at a meeting organized by a group of elders from various branches of the Union in the State. According to him the meeting was centered on how to move the Union forward in the state and ensure peaceful transition.
“It has become a usual practice, a norm, that power changes hands in the Union whenever there is a change in government at the state level from one political party to another. You cannot separate politics from the activities of the Union. We have various groups and each group has its preferred political party, they campaign for the candidates presented by their parties during elections, especially gubernatorial candidate. Everyone want to be on the side of the governor, so if a candidate supported by a group eventually emerged as the governor, definitely that group will take over the leadership of the Union. It is natural that a large number of members in the Union shift to governors side,” he explained.
“The group that has governor on its side will automatically receive supports of majority of the members of the Union across the state to produce the next chairman of the Union in the state and the chairmanship position will go the the leader of the group. It is a principle of “you reap what you sow”, that is, future consequences are inevitably shaped by present actions. NURTW in Oyo State is now in good order, we do not have factions in the NURTW, we are one, we all know who the head is. Nothing has changed, the agreement reached by the two groups when the national chairman held meeting with the governor, Engineer Seyi Makinde still valid,” Prince Adeyonu added.
Meanwhile , the Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Egbeda Branch, Ibadan Mr. Oluwatomiwa Omolewa has assured the people of Oyo State of peaceful transition without rancor or fear of intimidation. “I want to assure everyone that our transition period will be peaceful. No member will be intimidated nor harassed, since almost all members of the Union in the state are heading towards the same direction, I cannot foresee any problem.”
“Not this time when we are sanitizing and repositioning the Union. No one can cause any problem or crisis among our members again, as we do not pray for bloodshed again. We collaborate with security agencies to monitor activities of all our members and branches. We are sure that the transformation that has started in Oyo NURTW will take the Union to the next level of innovation and progress,” Omolewa added.
