The National Union of Road Transport Workers, Abia State chapter, has lamented that the control of Okigwe Park in Umuahia belonging to the union has been snatched from them. The union consequently called on the state government to restore control to the NURTW, saying past state government gave the union the park. Addressing journalists Monday, the Secretary, Umuahia Area chapter of the union, Uzoma Igbokwe said, “Last year, Governor Alex Otti advised us to go back and take control of the park, but the Mayoral Council has refused to allow the union to work.” He disclosed that instead, the control of the park was needed to someone else at a cost every six months, starting January, 2025. “When we went to the Mayor of Umuahia North, he denied giving out the park to the fellow”, he said. Igbokwe noted that the Mayor later sent a personal assistant who assured the union that after 31st December 2025, the control of the park will revert to the NURTW as ceded to them in several letters from the office of the state Commissioner for Transport. “But as of today, we are out of the park”, the transport union executive added. Also speaking, the NURTW Okigwe Park, Owerri Sienna route chairman, Ifeanyi Ogbansiegbe, said the state chairman, Chukwuma Azodo had prevented the Umuahia branch members from going on protest, and urged the state government to forestall park crisis by giving back the facility. However when the park controller, identify simply as Comrade Nwacham, was contacted, he denied having any contract with Umuahia North LGA, explaining that the Okigwe Park has four unions operating in the facility – National Association of Road Transport Owners, Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, and Co-operative Transport Union of Nigeria and the National Union of Road Transport Workers. According to him, as the oldest and most experienced transporter in the park, he was asked by the Umuahia North council to coordinate transportation businesses in the park, pointing out, “All unions operate independently and are free from interference from any other transport union. “In Aba Park, Umuahia, the four unions exist, but the overall controller of the park was given to someone from NURTW, and even at Umuahia Mass, it was only NURTW that operates, but we are not complaining.” He said blamed a past national officer of NURTW for trying to proscribe all other unions in the state and trying to bring them under NURTW. All efforts to get the Umuahia North LGA and the present state Commissioner for Transport, Dr, Chimezie Ukaegbu for their reactions were futile.