The Petroleum Tanker Drivers Branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (PTD- NUPENG) has threatened to launch a nationwide strike, which could mean that Nigerians will once again have to wait for hours in fuel lines.
Goldennewsng reports that the tanker drivers said they are going on strike because they think security agents, especially the Military Task Force in the union’s Port Harcourt zone, are being too aggressive and engaging in illegal activities.
Comrade Lucky Osesua, national chairman of the PTD-NUPENG, claims that on Tuesday night, soldiers from the Military Task Force in Port Harcourt set fire to two of their trucks carrying black oil (HPFO).
Osesua stated yesterday to journalists in Abuja that the truck drivers had been falsely accused of transporting crude oil.
He stated that between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers State, the trucks carrying the black oil to a modular refinery in Imo State, Walter Smith Refinery and Petrochemical, Ibigwe, were intercepted.
The national chairman of PTD-NUPENG stated that the petrol tankers were transporting 40,000 liters of black oil to Bob & Sea Depot Koko Delta State, and that the trucks’ number plates were EFR 770 XA and AFZ 351 ZY.
He claims that the drivers of the two trucks responded courteously and even presented all of the required documentation to military officers, who ignored it, ignored the appeals, and burned the trucks.
“The drivers presented WayBills, NUPENG receipts, and quality control documents,” Osesua told journalists when he presented the documents. However, the men in the military insisted that crude oil be carried! On Tuesday night, they drove the two trucks away and set them on fire between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers State.
“The soldiers burned the trucks in less than five hours without investigating and without contacting the refinery where the drivers said they lifted the black oil.”
The PTD-NUPENG national chairman also presented documents signed by Charles Okon, the manager of the refinery at Walter Smith Refinery and Petrochemical, where the products were loaded, to provide additional evidence.
He stated that the Union had decided to stop lifting products at its Port Harcourt zone and that the same decision to stop loading would be made nationwide by Monday, with the exception of the costs incurred due to the Military Task Force’s overreach.
We have had enough of our security personnel’s overreach. They ought to put an end to their demonization of our Union and the persecution of our men as they go about their normal activities. We anticipate that trained security personnel will be able to distinguish between black oil and crude oil in today’s world. He stated, “We should not be the ones to suffer as a result of their ignorance.”