Maritime Workers Union defends disbanding of COMTUA

The Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria MWUN, has given reasons why the Council Of Maritime Unions and Associations (COMTUA),has been dissolved.

In a statement titled ” Notice of Dissolution of COMTUA :Current State of Its Affairs ,made available to Anchor Press, on Saturday,and signed by the Head of Media of the foremost Union,Comrade John Kennedy Ikemefuna,MWUN affirmed that the initial purpose for which the disbanded COMTUA was set up is to stop the grid lock on port access roads.He noted that the aim has been achieved,hence the disbanding of the Association.

MWUN noted that Seven Unions and associations in the Maritime Sector came, together in 2019 to form COMTUA,with the sole objective of ensuring that the perennial gridlock on port access ways was stopped.

The statement reads,”The attention of Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria has been drawn to the news making the rounds purportedly emanating from one Adeyinka Aroyewun with regards to his unilateral and continued insistence to give recognition to a body i.e COMTUA, which for good reasons the founding members mutually agreed to disband having achieved the purpose for which it was set up.

” For the sake of clarity, we wish to bring to the notice of the general public and the press that COMTUA was founded as a response to the then gridlock which had become a permanent feature of the port access roads in Lagos making businesses suffer.

” Consequently, on the 19th March 2019, some Maritime-based unions and associations numbering seven (7) mutually agreed to form COMTUA. These associations were: Amalgamation of Container Truck Owners (ACTOA), Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN), Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Association of Maritime Truck Owners, Lagos (AMATO), Container Truck Owners Association of Nigeria (COTOAN). To run COMTUA, two organs were formed viz (i) Board of Trustees (ii) Management Committee while Adeyinka Aroyewun was appointed as organizing personnel when the need arose at the time.

” As follow up to the above, Comrade Olaleye Thompson was elected the first president of COMTUA by the mandate of the seven COMTUA parties but had to relinquish his position due to his own personal reasons. Subsequently, Comrade Adeyinka Aroyewun was given mandate to the presidency of COMTUA through the mandate of the seven collaborating parties of COMTUA.

“We also wish to bring to the notice of the general public that no sooner than this fellow Adeyinka Aroyewun ascended the presidency of COMTUA that he started to attack governments of states, officials of government, government parastatals and their officers, security agencies, port users, fellow comrades, and the leadership of other unions and associations. These and many more unseemly acts of Adeyinka Aroyewun ultimately constituted a direct breach of the Memorandum of Understanding that initially bound the seven (7) collaborating parties (COMTUA) and led to the pulling out of all seven collaborating parties, which led to a dissolution of COMTUA by virtue of a another Memorandum of Understanding to establish the dissolution of COMTUA which all seven collaborating parties duly executed and which was franked by one Barrister Emeka Charles Madiebo, the legal practitioner who drafted same. This dissolution of COMTUA was duly publicized and circulated widely to alert the general public of the dissolution of COMTUA.

” We are therefore wondering how and where this Adeyinka Aroyewun derives his mandate to retain the presidency of a disbanded body especially as all seven collaborating parties have since withdrawn their mandate from the collaboration. For emphasis, we wish to state that COMTUA has been mutually disbanded and it remains so. Therefore anybody parading himself or herself as president is out to deceive the public and is merely an impersonator as they no longer have the mandate of the collaborating parties.” the statement concluded