The National Association of Road Transport Owners, Lagos branch, has said the union has enough buses to perform any necessary duty during the forthcoming elections in Lagos State.
NARTO, in a statement obtained by our correspondent on Saturday, was replying to the Resident Electoral Commission in Lagos, Olusegun Agbaje, who had justified why the Independent National Electoral Commission was working with park managers in the distribution of election materials.
Agbaje had last week said INEC was not working with the former chairman of the defunct National Union of Road Transport Workers in Lagos, Musiliu Akinsanya, popularly known as MC Oluomo, but rather working with park managers.
He said, “On the issue of MC Oluomo, the commission is not concerned with Oluomo. We are concerned with the issue of motor park administration in Lagos.
“For the past two years, the Lagos State government has banned the operations of the NURTW and RTEAN in the state. They had problems and the state government banned them.
“So we are left with Lagos State Park and Garages and the National Association of Road Transport Owners.”
The REC added that NARTO “is not able to meet up with the 40 per cent needs of the commission for this election.”
Reacting, the NARTO boss in Lagos, Kayode Odunowo, said contrary to the position of the REC, the association had enough vehicles.
“It has become imperative for NARTO, the mother of all transport associations in Nigeria, to respond to the report credited to the Lagos REC bordering on the inability of NARTO to provide enough vehicles for the 2023 elections.
“NARTO has more than enough, and it’s prepared beyond the imagination of INEC. As a federal body, NARTO signed a Memorandum of Understanding with INEC at the national level last year, 2022, domiciled it to all the 36 states of the federation.
“The Lagos NARTO swung into action since then, meeting with both state INEC’s head of administration and operations.
“Any deal or collaboration between INEC and other unions, either legal or illegal, is out of our knowledge officially.”
NARTO said it was prepared to perform its duties to the service of the nation and towards the success of the elections.
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