Fuel Queues Take Over Abuja,Kano,Bauchi,Aba

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.