By NewsCritic reporters
The Chairman of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, NARTO, Abia State Chief Amaobi Ohaeri has called on the Abia State government to restrain the former Chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Abia state, Comrade Eugene Eze Job before he sets the state on fire with his distasteful activities in the state’s transport unions.
In an interview with NewsCritic online in Umuahia, Chief Amaobi Ohaeri said that with the way Eugene Eze Job is going, if nothing is done to call him to order the state is at risk of a brutal confrontation of unimaginable scale between the various transport unions.
The Abia State NARTO boss revealed that the ugly incident which took place at Osisioma motor park recently, whereby someone had his eye plucked out is an eye opener to what is about to happen due to the activities of Eugene Eze Job.
He said that Eugene Job is in the habit of going against laid down rules guiding the activities of motor unions in the state, especially as it relates to loading and offloading of vehicles. Chief Amaobi Ohaeri stressed that despite the fact that the chairman of Osisioma LGA had issued directives on the mode of operations of the motor unions in the area and banned vehicles from loading at Olaz Oil, that Eugene and his men are flouting this order thereby causing problem at Osisoma.
Chief Ohaeri pointed out that the filing station is not a motor park, adding that it is even risky to use it as a loading point, neglecting the Osisioma park which is the central park. He named one Michael Achillefu and Tochi as the men Eugene Eze Job use to perpetrate this illegality and breach of peace of the area.
According to the NARTO boss, last week there were to many fights at Osisioma as a result of which boys were allegedly recruited from Aro-Ngwa in their hundreds as thugs to fight rival transport groups. He regretted that the likes of Eugene Eze Job have messed up the transport unions and portrayed it as job only fit for the miscreants in the society which is not supposed to be so.
Speaking further, he explained that Eugene Eze is no longer the chairman of NURTW and SATOA being that the national leadership of the union dissolved his leadership and instituted a caretaker committee in its place. Again, he said that the Abia state governor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu proscribed the two unions and stopped them from operating in Abia because of their unwelcomed activities.
He stressed that he was surprised when the state government through the office of the SSG announced that the state government has pardoned Eugene Eze Job to start operating in the state, and demanded to know if the national leadership that dissolved his leadership has reinstated them.
Chief Amaobi Ohaeri maintained that the activities of Eugene Eze Job is causing breach of peace and needless violence in the state and should be stopped before it gets out of control. For instance, Ohaeri disclosed that in Obingwa LGA, one Ogaranya, who says he is the chief of staff to Eugene last week stopped a meeting of the joint transport unions taking place at Obingwa on the instructions of Eze Job, which almost caused bloodshed.
Also in Aba Main Park, he said one nwananwenne has refused to pay to NARTO what is due to them, on the instructions of Eugene.
“is he not calling for violence. What is happening in Osisoma is it not an attempt to cause violence and breach of peace of the area. Even in Umuahia LGA, despite court judgement the people refused to allow any transport union to operate there”.
He called on the state government to intervene before Eugene sets the state on fire with his quest for money.
The NARTO boss said he has been begging his members to remain calm in the face of provocation by Eugene Eze Job and his men because of their love for Governor Okezie Ikpeazu and Abia.
“Again, let me tell us that Eugene is trying to cause problem in Abia so that other unions will be proscribed. I told my members not to be confrontational… because if we decide to follow him the way he is going there will be violence”, he remarks.
He called on the Abia state government to stop Eugene Eze Job from perpetrating illegalities that are capable of leading to break down of law and order, because if Abia explodes it would not augur well for any of us.