Crisis Rocks Iota as Registrar Tackles President Lucky Amiwero

A deep-rooted crisis has engulfed the Institute of Transport Administration (IOTA) of Nigeria, pitching the institute’s registrar, Mr John Oparah against its national president, Mr Lucky Amiwero.
The controversy which reportedly reared its head shortly after Mr Amiwero emerged as the institute’s national president in April, 2000 has degenerated into a legal action which was said to have been instituted by the former registrar.
A source who is very close to the embattled institute told Shipping Position Weekly that the face-off has degenerated into a sharp division in the newly-elected executive council and that only about half of the council that was elected in April now meet.
Our correspondent who visited the Borno Way, Ebutte Metta, Lagos secretariat of the institute discovered that though it is wearing a new coat of paint, there is a disturbing disquiet.
Our source confirmed that the embattled registrar has taken the equally embattled national president to court for allegedly detaining him at a police station in Yaba, Lagos and for allegedly unlawfully terminating his appointment.
Mr Amiwero is also the national president, National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents. He was reportedly invited to be the new president of IOTA which has been governed by a caretaker committee for many years.
Shipping Position Weekly confirmed that in an attempt to get justice and also get his job back, the former registrar has forwarded an 11- page document to members of the board of trustees of the institute which include a traditional ruler in one of the towns in Lagos.
A copy of the document which was sighted by our correspondent alleged that Mr Amiwero is running IOTA as a dictator who has no respect for constituted authourity, especially the board of trustees.
Mr Oparah confirmed in a chat with Shipping Position Weekly that he was detained by the police on the orders of Mr Amiwero and that he has been sacked by the same person who according to him, acted without consulting with other members of the executive and the institute’s board of trustees (BOT).
But Mr Amiwero told Shipping Position Weekly that he could not take instructions from the BOT and that the actions against the former registrar as final and irreversible.
“He (Oparah) was never a staff of IOTA, he was not appointed as a registrar. When I came in, we look at the constitution, he was offered appointment as an administrative staff in 1991, we told him to reapply for the post of registrar, and he refused”, the institute president told our correspondent.
He equally threw the BOT into the trash can saying that there is no board of trustees. “There is no board of trustees; they have no business with the running of IOTA. Am I supposed to work under the board of trustees, they are under me”, he pointed out.