Appeal Court stops suspension of NURTW in Oyo State

Mr Falana also questioned the legal power of Governor Makinde to suspend the NURTW, as all trade unions are in the exclusive legislative list of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended.

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The three-man panel, in its lead judgment delivered by Justice Kenneth Ikechukwu Amadi, ruled that the Oyo State Government failed to provide evidence of any breach of peace or public order that would justify the suspension of the union’s activities.

“Nowhere in the counter affidavit filed by the respondents at the lower court did they aver that the conduct of the appellant warranted a suspension on the grounds of breach of peace, law, and order.

I therefore hold that the respondents failed to justify the suspension of the activities of the appellant based on the ground of breach of peace, law, and order in Oyo State caused by the union. I allow this appeal, set aside the suspension on the operations of NURTW in Oyo State. I also set aside the judgment of the lower court,” Justice Amadi held.

Justice Biobele Abraham Georgewill, concurring with the lead judgment, criticised the state government’s handling of the matter.

He emphasised that while the state has the authority to maintain law and order, it must do so within the confines of the law.

In his ruling, he held: “In the leading judgment, it has been demonstrated that the respondents did not prove the existence of any acts of violence against the appellant by merely mouthing violence in its counter affidavit without setting forth the acts of the appellant and concrete evidence to show the acts and conduct that can be categorised as violent. Now, if the appellant’s activities were violent, that is an illegal act, then such violent activities can be checked by the state government, so that law and order would be restored and maintained by the relevant security agencies, including the police, but it cannot be resolved by resort to another form of illegality by the state government going outside the lawful channel to use its whims and caprices by suspending the activities of the appellant, since the state government does not have any such powers outside the laws of the land.”