MWUN, COMTUA Brawl...

 MWUN, COMTUA Brawl Over Extortion fee of N2000 at 20 illegal Checkpoints

ZAINAB JUNAID 

The Maritime Workers’ Union of Nigeria (MWUN) and the Council of Maritime Truck Unions and Associations (COMTUA) have exchanged words over allegations put forward by the latter on the extortion imposed on its members regarding the manned twenty (20) illegal checkpoints from Coconut to TinCan Port second gate where #2, 000 is forcefully collected from truckers per check point. 

Mr. Erazu Oniha, MWUN Public Relations Officer (PRO), argued that the allegation does not hold a water as the move was deliberately meant to tarnish MWUN image since it pulled out of COMTUA. 

Oniha degrade COMTUA, ascribing the union as a brainchild of all Maritime Unions; a child of necessity which was to mitigate the problems bedeviling the Unions and its members but went against the tenets it was created for. 

It could be recalled that the National President of COMTUA, prince Adeyinka Aroyewun had on Monday accused MWUN of not reciprocating positively to the  letters of complaint and consultation sent by COMTUA to parks and Garage Committees, Park Administration Committee and MWUN, notifying them of the illegal activities taken place at this point. 

Instead of approaching the matter in a civilized way, Aroyewun said the other party (MWUN) resulted to a provocative affront. "They rather connived with government agencies to extort our MEMBERS the more."

Aroyewun lamented that MWUN operates 20 checkpoints from Coconut to Tin-Can Port Second gate where N2,000 is forcefully collected per point from our members. 

According to him, “The Coconut to Tin-Can Port Second gate is under the watch of MWUN president General Comrade Adewale Adeyanju whose main coordinator is Taofeek Shorinola fondly called Sheu Tao. They injured and sometimes kill our members for non-compliance to the extortion. Parks and Garages have Abayomi Abeyi Ajele fondly called Ikomodina, Michael Adewale often referred as Hot water and Raji-student mount. They are all in charge of the check points between Mile 2 and Sunrise where the amount between N2,000 and N6,000 are forcefully collected per point from our members. Also, the likes of Chiboy and Adeleke collect money from truckers around Kirikiri, FATGBEMS, Badagry Express Road and inside Amuwo Odofin,” he said. 

But in response to all these allegations, Oniha declared COMTUA allegations are. Frivolous, explaining that “COMTUA wrote us to say that our haulage branch is mounting illegal road blocks, we discovered that this was completely false. Yes our constitution permits the haulage branch to ticket trucks within zones inside the ports but anything outside the ports is not from our members, so it's false.”

Oniha maintained that COMTUA's accusation of treating their letter with disdain is untrue. 

He said, "They wrote us and copied the Commissioner of Police Maritime, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and we responded appropriately to all these.” 

On the accusation of collaborating with the newly formed Lagos Parks and Garages Committee, Oniha disclosed that MWUN is at war with afore mentioned group. 

To him, “They attacked, maimed and killed 4 of our members at Tin can Port for which after settlement they were asked to pay compensation to the victims, including burying those who were killed, another attack by the same group also reoccurred recently, how can we now collaborate with them? This matter is in the public domain because the Customs Service, Tincan island Command wrote them. So as you can see their claims are frivolous and this is coming up because we left COMTUA," Comrade Oniha stated.