The Lagos State Parks and Garages (LASPG) on Monday, 6 February, 2023, said the letter written to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was to set the record straight and smoothen the transportation of electoral materials across the metropolis.
Secretary of the agency, Comrade Olayiwola Lemboye, at a briefing said since the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) has been proscribed by the Lagos State Government, it became necessary to notify the leadership of the electoral commission that the agency is in charge of commercial road transport activities.
Lemboye said: “You will recall that the crisis between the Lagos State Council and the National Body of the NURTW on the activities of the union necessitated the State Council pulling out of the National body of NURTW.
“The State Government later proscribed the NURTW activities in the state last March 11 to forestall breakdown of law and order. The Government subsequently on April 7 announced the setting up of a 25-man ad-hoc committee to manage the operations of commercial road transport activities within parks and garages across the state.
“Since NURTW operation is not functioning in Lagos State and the mantle of coordinating the activities of commercial road transportation workers has been saddled with the LASPG, we, at Lagos State Parks and Garages, hereby find it exigent to put things in proper perspectives which necessitated our letter to the INEC. The essence is to ensure that the distribution of electoral materials for this year’s elections in Lagos State do not suffer any setback.
“Aside the name change from NURTW to LASPG in Lagos state, we are still in control of commercial road transport day-to-day activities, evidence of this can be seen in all parks and garages across the state.
“We are, therefore, using this medium to assure the leadership of INEC and the general public that the distribution of electoral materials will be handled professionally as it is being done in the past.”