Fuel crisis may worsen as tanker drivers threaten nationwide industrial action

The lingering fuel supply problem may worsen in coming days as the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Branch of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (PTD-NUPENG) has threatened to stop loading products nationwide from Monday next week over harassment of its members by security agents.

The drivers said the action was to  protest the security agents’ unjustified burning of two loaded tankers driven by its members in the Port Harcourt area.

They accused the security agents, particularly, the military task force operating in the Port Harcourt zone of highhandedness.

Already, they said they had suspended fuel loading and supply in Port Harcourt.

National Chairman of the PTD-NUPENG, Lucky Osesua, in a statement in Abuja said the military task force operating in Port Harcourt burnt two trucks conveying High Pour Fuel Oil, HPFO, otherwise known as black oil on Tuesday night as the truck drivers were falsely accused of transporting crude oil.

He said the trucks which lifted the black oil at a modular refinery, Walter Smith Refinery and Petrochemical Ibigwe Imo State, on Monday and Tuesday, were intercepted between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers State.

He said the trucks with plate numbers EFR 770 XA and AFZ 351 ZY, were conveying 40,000 liters each of the Black Oil to Bob & Sea Depot Koko Delta State.

He explained that the drivers of the two trucks were polite in their responses and presented all the necessary documents to officers of the military who ignored the documents, rebuffed appeals and burnt the trucks.

Osesua said, “The drivers presented Way Bills, NUPENG receipts, and quality control documents. But the military men still insisted that they carried crude oil! They drove 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 down the trucks, in less than five hours.”

He said the union had taken a decision to stop lifting products at its Port Harcourt zone, adding that the same decision to stop loading nationwide would be taken by Monday except damages incurred as a result of the high-handedness of the Military Task Force were addressed.

“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,” he stated.