According to RTEAN, the caretaker committee's decision to replace the tickets at the parks is a blatant disobedience of the order issued by the court.

The statement, in part, read as follows: "The purported dissolution of the Elected Executive Committee of RTEAN Lagos State Branch and the appointment of the so-called Caretaker Committee was just a smoke screen that was used to extort money from members, Chapels, and Zones of RTEAN in Lagos State. This can be seen, therefore, from the unlawful directive given by the Caretaker Committee as well as the forceful sale of tickets to members of RTEAN.

"It is also important to keep in mind that the suit was brought before the National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos on November 7, 2022. At that time, the Honorable Court ordered all of the parties to keep the status quo ante bellum pending the hearing and determination of the Motion on Notice and the substantive Suit, which was postponed until November 23, 2022.

"The behaviour of the Caretaker Committee demonstrates a blatant disregard for the aforementioned court order that was issued by the National Industrial Court, since this behaviour constitutes contempt of the aforementioned court order that was issued.

"As a result, we are issuing a call to all Chapels and Zones of RTEAN that are currently operating in the state of Lagos to disobey the unlawful and/or illegal directive that was issued by the so-called Caretaker Committee. This is because the so-called Caretaker Committee does not have the authority to issue the aforementioned directive, especially considering that the National Industrial Court had ordered the status quo ante bellum to be maintained.

Since there is no one who is above the law, "the precipitate action in the form of the instruction to pay the amount specified above by the so-called Caretaker Committee being in contempt of the valid decision given by the Court, will at the proper time be challenged in Court."

According to the statement, the Lagos State Government was not only attempting to extract enormous sums of money from the association's members, but it also pretended to dissolve the association's elected executive committee in order to do so.

"The Lagos State Government has also replaced all the tickets of RTEAN in their parks and has printed new ones in various categories ranging from N1,000 to N2,000 in the name of the 'Lagos State Park Administration' and the 'Lagos State Care-taker Committee,' and they are using the so-called Caretaker Committee to forcefully sell the said tickets to members of RTEAN in Lagos State," the statement added. "Lagos State Park Administration" and "Lagos State Care-take