Long queues yesterday resurfaced at
filling stations in Abuja, Kano, Bauchi, Aba and many other major cities as oil
workers’ union NUPENG began a three-day “warning” strike to press for fairer
labour practices.
The National Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) is demanding labour rights for workers in major
oil companies, higher pay from their employers, as well as the repair of
dilapidated roads that union members use in moving fuel products.
At the start of the industrial action
yesterday, members of the unions shut down oil depots in Lagos, thereby
stifling supply to all parts of the country.
Our correspondents witnessed chaotic
scenes at petrol stations in Abuja, Kano, Bauchi and other places as people
scrambled to fill their tanks. In Kaduna, most stations closed, effectively
creating a run on the few that were open.
But the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation said there was no scarcity of petroleum products as it has a 32-day
stock. The corporation said the fuel queues were as a result of panic buying.
Depots shut
Petroleum products depots at Apapa
and Ibafon in Lagos were shut yesterday, as NUPENG officials were seen
monitoring compliance with the industrial action.
Corporate Affairs Manager of Nigeria
Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO), Alhaji Taofeek Lawal, told our
correspondent that the company’s depot in Apapa was shut in deference to the
union’s directive.
“There was no loading this morning in
compliance with the warning strike. In fact the whole depot was like a
graveyard this morning as a result of the inability of tanker drivers to load
products,” he said.
There were no queues in most filling
stations monitored by our correspondent in Lagos, apparently because the
stations still had fuel in stock.
But in Abuja, there were long queues
in the stations that were selling. The snaking queue at the NNPC Mega Station
at the Central Area resulted in partial blockage of the adjoining road and a
thick traffic snarl, with similar situations in other filling stations in the
city.
A Daily Trust reporter also observed
that some filling stations were locked up even though they might have fuel in
stock, apparently hoping to cash in
on the anticipated scarcity.
In Kano, our correspondent who went
round the city reported that most of the filling stations were locked while the
few that were open had long queues.
A manager in a filling station along
Zango road said he closed his station by 12pm for security reasons. “I closed
my station since 12 o’clock when I became aware of the strike to avoid
unforeseen circumstances,” he said. In the Sabon Gari area, most motorists said
they were taken unawares by the strike.
In Niger State, the strike caused
acute fuel scarcity in Kontagora as black marketers cashed in on the situation.
But there was no fuel problem in the state capital Minna, where filling
stations were noticed selling.
Most fuel stations in Kaduna refused
to open for business, following the start of NUPENG strike, forcing motorists
to patronise black marketers at a very expensive price.
Filling stations at Sabon Tasha,
Television, Malali and all those along Kaduna-Zaria road were not open
throughout yesterday. Our correspondent observed that officials of NUPENG
patrolled the fuel stations to ensure full compliance with the strike.
In Bauchi, long queues built up as
motorists rushed to fill their tanks while other people rushed in with gallons
to get fuel for their generators.
In many filling stations managers of
the stations and petrol sellers said they had already sold all they had and
were waiting to see what will happen by today.
Also in Aba, Abia State, motorists
were rushing yesterday to fill their tanks. One of the motorists, Kingsley
Ikechi, who expressed worry over the strike, said petroleum workers’ strike had
caused fuel scarcity in the past and so no one was sure what this will turn out
to be.
“NUPENG said it’s a warning
strike, we do not know when the strike will stop. Academic Staff Union of
Polytechnics (ASUP) started with warning strike and yet, the strike is still
ongoing. So their strike can be indefinite after the 3 days warning strike,” he
said.
When contacted, chairman of
Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, Osisioma Depot (IPMAN) in Abia
State, Elder Simple Nwamkpa, said it was expected of people to panic whenever
such warnings were issued. But he advised people against panic buying, saying
this could trigger price hikes.
But in a statement in Abuja, the NNPC
assured that it has adequate stock of petroleum products adding that it was
working towards reducing the impact of the disruption of products supply as
result of the NUPENG strike.
The statement said NNPC has in stock
over 32 days sufficiency of petrol and other products, and therefore urged
people to avoid panic buying or hoarding of fuel.
From ‘warning’ to ‘indefinite’
NUPENG President Mr Achese Igwe said
in Abuja the union had to call for the strike due to unfair treatment of
workers by major oil companies Shell, Chevron and Agip.
Igwe warned that the union would
embark on an indefinite strike after the three-day warning strike if government
and the relevant authorities failed to address its grievances.
Achese also urged President Goodluck
Jonathan to reshuffle his cabinet so as to put in serious-minded people to
manage the oil sector. He said a meeting scheduled to hold
at Ministry of Petroleum Resources was thwarted by ministry staff who were
protesting against perceived nonchalance of Petroleum Minister Diezani
Alison-Madueke to their welfare.
“On reaching there, staff of the
ministry were protesting. They chased us away saying no business will go on in
the ministry and that since she (Diezani) assumed office, she had not discussed
their welfare. Even the minister herself was not in town, showing what she
thinks of the strike,” he said.
“We as a union fully support the
president because he means well for this nation, but most of the people working
with him in his cabinet are only working for their own pockets.”
However, he added that a meeting
between the union and the Minister of Labour and Productivity Emeka Wogu was
scheduled for late last night to find a solution to the crisis.
He also said a joint National
Executive Council (NEC) meeting of NUPENG and PENGASSAN would hold in Abuja
this morning to decide on the next step to take.
Achese said multinationals were
enslaving Nigerians but “it seems government institutions have chosen to
identify with the multinationals by militarising their premises,” an action
“which shows that the government is in bed with the multinationals that enslave
Nigerians.
“How can a person, after working as
contract staff for 25 years wake up one day, have his contract terminated, and
be given just N300,000 as severance pay? How can you say a plant or rig
operator is not a core staff? When a casual staff works a core job, then he
should be converted to a permanent staff.”
Speaking yesterday on NUPENG’s
demands, president of the Nigerian Association of the Road Transport Owners
(NARTO) Kassim I. Bataiya said the association had no means to settle the
arrears and implement the new minimum wage for the Petroleum Tankers’ Drivers
(PTD) branch of NUPENG at the moment.
He told Daily Trust by telephone that
his members rely solely on the freight rate given to them by government on
which they are using to pay salaries of the drivers and “unless government
adjusted the template we can’t implement the new minimum wage by government to
our drivers”.
Bataiya said the other option being
considered by NARTO was to use the reimbursement of billions in withholding tax
expected from the Federal Inland Revenue Service.
Tags
Politics
Abeg let the scarcity start in portharcourt.we cant wait 2 grab dis opportunity may be dats how we get our own share of d national cake.
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