Omolewa Describes Recent Media Report on Oyo NURTW As Retrogressive
The Chairman, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Egbeda Branch, Ibadan Mr. Oluwatomiwa Omolewa has decried the widely publicized story on the crisis that broke out between two factions of the NURTW last weekend as retrogressive and unbecoming.
Omolewa stated this while addressing journalists at the Union Secretariat, Egbeda Branch in Ibadan. He debunked the news and described it as an exaggerated claim made by the enemies of the Union. “The news shocked us and created serious embarrassment for us all. Even at the national level, national leaders of NURTW were greatly disturbed, they kept calling us for the confirmation of the story. Especially, our secretariat here, since it was reported to have happened within Egbeda, besides Egbeda secretariat is the hub of the Union in Oyo State. The damage done to this Union by the media through this new is terrible and unacceptable.”
“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. If you stay for another 30mins here you are likely to see patrol teams of Operation Burst, Police, Army and even SSS. Egbeda is the major focus point, we have 8 police station within Egbeda, there was no way such attack would happened and it would not get to the knowledge of any of the stations around here.”
Omolewa seeks the cooperation of journalists, he also appealed to journalists to be thorough in their investigation and always balance story before going to press. He however agreed that the said story was balanced on newspapers but accused broadcasters of bias in their newspapers review.
” Yes, I agreed, the story was balanced as published by the newspapers and online media but the broadcasters were deliberately biased. I would not agreed that time constraint responsible for broadcasters inability to balance story. They can do that by taking one sentence each from the statement of each of the parties concerned,” Omolewa stated.
Meanwhile, Prince Bankole Adeyonu, a former chairman of the Egbeda branch of the Union who was also present at the meeting also appealed to journalists for good relationship with the NURTW in Oyo State. He insisted that there is only one NURTW in Oyo state, that the recent development is nothing new but normal occurrences.
“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 governor Engineer Seyi Makinde stands. Politically power must changed, it is not peculiar to Oyo State alone. When government changes at state level from one political party to another, corresponding change in the leadership of the NURTW is inevitable, of course this is also not peculiar to our Union alone.”
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