How transport union leaders lobbied, offered bribe to stop Oyo’s park management

Details have emerged as to the moves embarked upon by some top transport union leaders and henchmen in the transport sector in Oyo State to thwart the Park Management System (PMS) introduced by the government of Oyo State last week.

Investigations by the Sunday Tribune revealed that some spirited moves were embarked upon by some leaders of the transport union starting from September 2019, in several bids aimed at truncating the inauguration of the PMS.

Sources told the Sunday Tribune that as soon as Governor Seyi Makinde announced the ban on the activities of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state upon his inauguration on May 29, 2019, his administration immediately went to work to design the measures to tackle the perennial challenge to security posed by the issue of control over the motor parks and garages.

“There were several meetings by the select committee put in place by Governor Makinde to midwife the PMS. The membership was not stable until around mid-August, 2019, when real meetings and deliberations started. It did not take long before the committee arrived at the solution which was the PMS policy, that was early September 2019.

“It also did not take the governor long time before he signed off on the policy after meetings of the State Executive Council and the State Security Council and then preparations commenced for the launch of the initiative, the appointment of the Park Managers and the approval of the operational codes.”

Sources confirmed that as soon as the transport leaders and stakeholders in the sector heard of the plan to inaugurate the PMS initiative, they launched an intense lobby aimed at dissuading the government from going that route.

It was gathered that a lobby team inaugurated by the transport chiefs went as far as promising huge monthly payments to critical members of the administration if they could convince Makinde to drop the PMS idea.

“At least five top officials of the government were promised a guaranteed payment of N2.5 million per month if they could provide the excuses that would dissuade the governor from implementing the PMS and assist in returning the status quo ante at the parks,” a source close to the administration said.

The state Commissioner for Public Works, Infrastructure and Transport, Professor Raphael Afonja, who was contacted, neither confirmed nor denied the development, but declared that his ministry was thinking out of the box.

“We are perpetually thinking out of the box in line with the overall agenda of accelerated development of Oyo State 2019 to 2023; the book of government of Governor Seyi Makinde.

“What I can assure you is that none of us in the Makinde team would open himself or herself to blackmail. Yes, some people tried and are still trying to thwart our efforts, but we are resolute to bring transformation to every sector here,” he said.