AUATON Votes No Confidence in President Amid Leadership Crisis

The Amalgamated Union of App-Based Transporters of Nigeria (AUATON) has adopted a vote of no confidence against its National President, Comrade Adedamola Adeniran. This development marks a renewed leadership crisis within the association, which has been plagued by internal factions. The Central Working Committee (CWC) meeting, held virtually on June 23, 2025, cited several reasons for the vote, including administrative overreach, disruption of democratic processes, constitutional breaches, and medical unfitness.

The CWC's decision was unanimous, with a motion moved by Comrade Nwachukwu Chinedu and seconded by Comrade Edache Obande. The committee's statement highlighted that Adeniran's leadership had consistently violated the union's constitution and disrupted democratic processes. The decision is subject to rectification by the National Executive Committee, which is scheduled to convene in Akwa Ibom by August. The NEC comprises all state chairmen, state secretaries, state treasurers, the CWC, and the zonal council principal officers.

The leadership crisis in AUATON comes at a challenging time for the industry, which is grappling with increasing operational costs due to inflationary pressures. Additionally, there are ongoing struggles over hikes in commission rates imposed by ride-hailing platforms such as Uber, Bolt, and InDrive. This internal power struggle is a significant setback for an association that was formed in 2023 to harmonize and unify ride-hailing drivers, merging three previously separate associations: NACORP, PEDPAN, and NUPABTW.

The union is known to have two factions. One faction is led by David Nosa Aigbornan, who was elected during the faction’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. The other faction is led by Adedamola Adeniran, whose leadership is being challenged by the opposing faction. Comrade Ibrahim Ayoade, a leader of the emerging faction serving as its Acting Secretary, revealed that the new faction is led by an executive, David Nosa, who was elected during the faction’s NEC meeting held on June 25. Ayoade also noted that the incumbent president, Comrade Adedamola Adeniran, is a staff member of the National Institute of Police Studies, which disqualifies him from holding executive positions within the union. Ayoade accused Adedamola of intimidating him and other factional executives with the police to strong-arm them into dropping their suits.

The opposing faction has initiated a suit at the Industrial Court challenging the legitimacy of Adedamola Adeniran as president and the entire AUATON executive. In the court documents, members of the faction sought interpretations of several aspects of the union’s constitution. The faction is seeking interpretations to sections which provide that persons who are not self-employed app-based workers cannot be members and that a public officer cannot stand for nomination to be elected as an officer of the union. In response, the National Ex-officio of the Adedamola Adeniran-led executives, Joseph Olawale, denied that the union is factionalized or in crisis. He maintained that Comrade Ibrahim is only trying to divide the union because he was removed from office by the Central Working Committee, following due process as prescribed by the union’s constitution and in conformity with a peaceful co-existence memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed by all the national officers of the union with the Federal Ministry of Labour’s Office of the Registrar for Trade Unions in December 2023.