By Theodore Opara
THE president of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Alhaji Tajudeen Ibikunle Baruwa has described as false and unsubstantiated the rumors making the rounds that the union, NURTW generates a whopping N123.8 billion annually. The NURTW boss made the clarification in a chat with journalists in Abuja over the weekend.
It would be recalled that The International Centre for Investigative report, ICIR, had last year reported that the union generates about N123.8 billion annually which could service the budgets of Nasarawa, Niger and Yobe states
Reacting to the report, The NURTW president expressed shock that some people in the name of a moribund NGO could be dishing out falsehood to misinform the masses.
Baruwa challenged the so called NGO to come out with data and statistics on how they arrived at the said figure (123.8 billion,)
He said “It is unfortunate that some armchair NGO will just sit down somewhere and be manufacturing figures to confuse the people. I challenge them to come our with proof of how they arrived at that figure. It is rather unfortunate too that majority now believe their fabricated stories”
He stated that NURTW is large employer of labour after federal government , with its members in every local government in Nigeria.
He said “it is the responsibility of the union to cater for the welfare and interest of its members and appealed to journalists and media houses to disregard the said report as there is no iota of truth in it”.