Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers
(NUPENG) said its Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) had been
mobilised to ensure no movement of petroleum tankers as
their nationwide strike begins on Monday, April 3, 2017.
This is despite assurance from the Nigerian National
Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that it has intervened to
avert the strike action by the PTD section of the NUPENG.
Speaking on the development, NUPENG’s national President,
Igwe Achese, who issued a statement in Lagos at the end
of its Central Working Committee meeting held at the
union’s secretariat in Yaba, said the strike would draw the
attention of the Federal Government and other stakeholders
to some unresolved issues bordering on the welfare of
workers, such as bad roads, poor remuneration, insecurity
and the alleged excesses of some security agencies.
The South-West Chairman of NUPENG Lagos Council, Alhaji
Tokunbo Korodo, yesterday told the News Agency of Nigeria
(NAN) in Lagos that all the tanker drivers have abandoned
their trucks in respect of the indefinite strike, which will
begin today unless the Federal Government intervenes.
“The tanker drivers for the past three years have been
appealing to the Nigeria Association of Road Transport
Owners (NARTO) to increase their salary but they
refused on the ground that spare parts had increased.
“NARTO said that government has not increased their
fares, so they will not increase their salary.
“Apart from this, most of the roads they ply are bad and
this has resulted in accidents or damaging their trucks.
“The activities of the official of Nigeria Security and
Civil Defence Corps on the roads is not helping the
matter,’’ Korodo said.
“The tanker drivers are forced to break the seal of their
product on the pretext that they were carrying
adulterated product.
“Most of these drivers are harassed by these officers,
at times the tanker and the driver will be detained for
close to a month,’’ he said.
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