Workers’ strike: Oil tanker drivers to embark on industrial action 

…Warns FG to meet its three demands

The Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has vowed to embark on strike on October 8.

The body warned the Federal Government to meet its three demands else, a strike would ensue.

This disclosure was made known by the National Chairman of the Union, Otunba Salman Oladiti.

The Chairman charged the Federal Government to reconstruct all the bad portions of the roads, enhance the enforcement of 45,000 loading capacity and ensure that all trucks have safety valve devices.

This strike action if embarked upon would leave a catastrophic effect on petroleum products especially in areas of distribution.

When this happens, the country may witness shortage of petrol thus resulting to fuel scarcity.

Oladiti said, “By the end of this week, if nothing is done about our demands, we will go on strike proper on the 8 of next month.

“Before now, we gave government ultimatum of 21 days, 14 days and 7 days. But, due to intervention, we suspended it.

“This time around, we don’t need to give notice again. We will act on what we have suspended before.

“We have three demands and they are- Reconstruction of all the bad portion of the roads, limiting the loading capacity to 45,000 litres and enforcement of safety valve devices on trucks.

“We do not say the government should construct all the Nigerian roads at the same time but do a comprehensive palliative intervention on all the bad portions that can make our members stay in a certain place for two-five days.

“It happened in other areas- Calabar-Odukpani, Warri -Benin, Okenne-Lokoja. These roads are very bad.

“We agreed on 45,000 capacity and that any load that exceeds 45,000, the government should disallow it through the tank farm owners.

“Any tank farm owner that loads above 45,000 has to be sanctioned. Based on this, some went with the perception that we wanted to cause fuel scarcity.”