Justice I.J. Essien of the National Industrial Court (Lagos Division) has summoned the Chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road and Transport Workers (NURTW), Comrade Mustapha Adio Adekunle (a.k.a Sego) and five others to appear before him on 15th October 2026 to show cause why they should not be commuted to prison for disobeying his court order.
The judge gave the order on Wednesday, 5 August, 2026 while ruling on the stay of proceedings, preliminary objection and commutal of contempt of judgement earlier delivered on 12th December 2025 over the illegal and unlawful usurpation of the operations of the Three Cycles Owners Association of Nigeria (TOAN) in Lagos State by the National Union of Road and Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN).
In his earlier judgement, Justice Essien had ordered the respondents which includes the Governor of Lagos State, the Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Commissioner for Transport, NURTW, RTEAN and Board of Trustees of the Drivers Association not to interfere in three cycles transport operations, averring that only TOAN has the sole authority to control three cycles operations in the state.
He also ordered the state Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice to set aside government white paper merging the operations of NURTW and TOAN in the interest of peace and sanctity of justice even as he described the act as unlawful take over of powers of the Registrar of Trade Unions.
At the resumed hearing of the case on Tuesday 28th July 2026, the NURTW boss, Mustapha Adekunle and the secretary of the union, Comrade Teslim Usman filed a counter-motion challenging the judgement through their counsel, Omotayo Olatubosun for lack of jurisdiction even as they claimed they had filed for a stay of execution at the court of appeal.
This came after TOAN had filed contempt proceedings through their counsel Rashidat Akinrinade against the respondents for disobeying court orders. But in a written address, the respondents claimed they were not personally served with the motion for contempt proceedings.
But after a prolonged argument and counter-arguement which lasted for about four hours, the judge reserved rulings on the three motions till August 5th 2026.
Interestingly, at the resumed hearing on Wednesday, Justice Essien expressed his displeasure at what he described as ‘frustrating antics’ deployed by counsels to the respondents through unprofessional practices to obstruct court processes to canvass the wrong position of the law. He publicly scolded the respondent counsels for submitting motions when the court had adjourned to deliver judgement.
While delivering his ruling on the motion for stay of execution, the judge averred that the respondents failed woefully to satisfy conditions for stay of execution of judgement and therefore imposed a fine of N1million on each of the respondents payable to TOAN.
On motion for preliminary objection, the judge ruled that the respondents were dully served summons for contempt proceedings and therefore imposed a fine of N2 million jointly on NURTW Chairman, Mustapha Adekunle (a.k.a Sego) and the union secretary, Comrade Usman Teslim as damages payable to TOAN for unlawfully disobeying court judgement.
On commutal for contempt, it was ruled that the 4th to 7th respondents had disdainfully disobeyed court orders by collecting development levies, security levies, selling tickets and stickers to three cycle operators in gross violation of order of the court.
Justice Essien therefore granted order for commutal summons to be issued on Mustapha Adekunle and Usman Teslim to appear before him and show cause why they should not be commuted to prison at the next adjourned date (15th October 2026). He also imposed a fine of N3 million on them.
