LAGOS – The executive members of the Nigeria Union of Railwaymen (NUR) in Kano have been indefinitely suspended following their refusal to counter allegations regarding the sale of staff quarters.
A petition dated March 5, 2025, and addressed to the NUR Secretary in Lagos, was signed by Comrade Jonathan Dauda, the Kano Branch Secretary. The petition stated that the suspension was handed down on February 20, 2025, in what Dauda described as a blatant disregard for union regulations.
According to Dauda, the issue stemmed from an earlier petition by K. Magaji & Associates, which accused the management of the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) of evicting staff and selling the quarters to the highest bidder while the matter was still pending in the Court of Appeal.
“We were never mentioned in the petition against the railway management, yet we were pressured to use the union’s letterhead to refute claims we were never part of,” Dauda argued. “Why should we be dragged into a crisis we had no hand in?”
He further alleged that when the branch executives refused to comply with the directive, they received a query from the NUR President General, Comrade Innocent Ajiji, and were subsequently suspended.
In response, Ajiji defended the suspension, stating that the Kano branch executives had misrepresented the facts.
“They lied against the Railway Property Management,” Ajiji asserted. “When I asked them to refute the lawyer’s claims, they refused. How can I trust them after that? If they don’t stop this blackmail, I will recommend their outright dismissal.”
Ajiji also claimed that affected staff had been relocated to new buildings, dismissing suggestions that they had been unjustly displaced.
As tensions escalate, the suspended executives maintain that their punishment violates the union’s constitution, which stipulates that a branch can only be dissolved for persistent breaches of the rules. The situation continues to unfold as both sides remain firm in their positions.
