The Lagos State Government has filed a notice of motion to appeal the ruling of the National Industrial Court, which nullified the appointment of a caretaker committee to manage the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in the state. The notice of appeal was brought under Order 6, Rules 1, 2 & 7 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2021, Section 243(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), and the inherent powers of the court.

The Attorney General of Lagos and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Mr. Sola Giwa, were listed alongside the governor as appellants to the suit, while the RTEAN, all the members of the ad-hoc committee, and the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State were listed as the 1st to 35th respondents.

The appellants in the notice expressed their dissatisfaction with the judgement of the National Industrial Court and are seeking an order of the court granting them leave to appeal against the said judgement. They listed out seven grounds in the proposed notice of appeal.

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The first ground claimed that the trial judge erred in law when he dismissed the preliminary objections challenging the competence of the RTEAN’s originating summons and the jurisdiction of the trial court to hear the action as constituted. The appellants argued that the processes before the court raised serious and substantial contentious and hostile facts which could not be appropriately remedied.

The second ground submitted that the trial court erred in law when it granted the claims of the RTEAN when same were not proved and established. The third ground said that the trial court erred in law when it held that “from the action of the Lagos State Govt in dissolving the democratically elected executive and substituting them with a caretaker committee under the guise of maintaining security shows that the government was more interested in the leadership of the applicant than the peace and tranquility of the applicant”.

The fourth ground stated that the trial court erred in law when it relied on the affidavit depositions of the RTEAN, Exhibit Q, in holding that the 2nd & 4th respondents dissolved the 1st respondent as a labour union and appointed the caretaker committee to run the affairs of the 1st respondent when Exhibit Q, the instrument issued by the Governor, neither dissolved nor suspended the 1st respondent, nor does the document refer to the 1st respondent in any way.

The fifth ground claimed that the trial court erred in law and fact in relying on Exhibits B1, B2, and B3 as a factual means for holding that the 2nd respondent suspended the entire branch of the 1st respondent or interfered with the 1st respondent by dissolving it as a trade union. The sixth ground stated that the trial court erred in law when it granted enforceable orders on the originating summons, failing to limit itself to the declarations sought.

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The appellants submitted that the judgement of the court was against the weight of evidence. They sought an order allowing the appeal and setting aside the judgement of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Lagos Division, delivered by Justice Maureen Esowe in the suit of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria Vs The Executive Governor of Lagos State & 36 others, delivered on April 18, 2023, or any other order the court may deem fit and proper to make in the circumstances of the appeal.