Nigerians have yet to overcome the current fuel crisis across the country, and another one is looming. This is because of the threat, on Thursday, by the Tanker Drivers Branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (PTD- NUPENG), to proceed on a nationwide strike.
The tanker drivers while adressing journalists in Abuja, the nation’s capital on Thursday warned that they will embark on the strike if their members continued to be harassed by security agencies.
Lucky Osesua, the National chairman of the PTD-NUPENG, said harassment by soldiers attached to the Military Task Force operating in Port Harcourt, a Rivers states has become unbearable for his members.
He flayed the high-handedness of the Task Force who he accused of operating illegally, adding that the drivers are constantly harassed by th3 soldiers who falsely accuse them of transporting stolen crude oil. He, however, denied the involvement of his members in such nefarious activities.
The soldiers recently burnt two trucks conveying black oil belonging to his members after accusing them transporting stolen crude.
Osesua stated that the trucks which lifted the black oil at a modular refinery, Walter Smith Refinery and Petrochemical, Ibigwe, in Imo State, on Monday and Tuesday, were intercepted between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers State.
He gave the number plates of the trucks as EFR 770 XA and AFZ 351 ZY, noting that the petrol tankers were conveying 40,000 litres each of the black oil to Bob & Sea Depot Koko Delta State.
He said the drivers presented their documents to the military men who stopped them for checking, but that their trucks were later burnt by the soldiers on accusation that they were conveying stolen products.
The appeal made by the drivers that their documents were genuine, he said, failed to convince the soldiers, adding that the union could no longer bear the bad treatment his members constantly receive from the Task force.
Osesua said, “The drivers presented WayBills, NUPENG receipts, and quality control documents. But the military men still insisted that they carried crude oil.! They drove the the two trucks away and burnt them between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers State on Tuesday night.
“Without investigation, without reaching out to the refinery where the drivers mentioned that they lifted the black oil, the soldiers burnt the trucks in less than five hours.
“Enough is enough about the high-handedness of our security agents. They should stop demonising our Union and persecuting our men who are doing their normal business. We expect that in this modern world, trained security agents should be able to identify black oil as against crude oil. We should not be at the receiving end of their ignorance.”
The curent situation of fuel scarcity will get worse, watchers of what is going on in the country said if the union makes good of their threats to go on strike.
