National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has said that the planned strike by Petroleum Tanker Drivers would start on Monday, August 10 as its meeting with Lagos State Government ended in deadlock.
It would be recalled that the National President of the NUPENG, Mr Williams Akporeha, had in a statement on Friday said tanker drivers would withdraw their services on Monday if their demands are not met.
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The South-West Chairman of NUPENG, Mr Tayo Aboyeji, in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria has now disclosed that there was no agreement between the union and the Lagos State Government.
Aboyeji said the issues which forced the drivers to initiate an indefinite strike was not addressed during the four-hour meeting with officials of the State Government that took place on Sunday.
He expressed;
They only promised to get back to us after we have told them what we want to avert the strike. Now, our stand still remains that they should address the issues of extortion and harassment of our members by security agents.
Security agents and hoodlums are extorting our members and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management use taser on our drivers and this can kill. Since they are not ready to address these issues, we will start the strike on Monday morning until they are able to resolve them.
Aboyeji stated;
It is unfortunate that the strike might affect all other states in the federation because most of them load their petroleum products in Lagos depots. We are not happy to disrupt fuel supply because we know the effect but we cannot continue to cope with the problems.
The chairman noted that members of PTD were now accusing NUPENG of taking side with security agents to molest and assault drivers on Lagos roads.
