Few weeks after the drama that ensued between its members and the Lagos State Government as well as the subsequent purported arrest of some of the petroleum tankers belonging to its members for packing on the expressways in Lagos, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has affirmed that the days of disagreement between it and the Lagos state government is over and that the relation is now very strong.
Few weeks after the drama that ensued between its members and the Lagos State Government as well as the subsequent purported arrest of some of the petroleum tankers belonging to its members for packing on the expressways in Lagos, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has affirmed that the days of disagreement between it and the Lagos state government is over and that the relation is now very strong.
The Chairman of the Lagos Zonal Council of the NUPENG, Alhaji Nojeem Korodo told Shipping Position Daily exclusively last week that the days of fighting and quarrelling with the government is over and that the union now understands the predicament of the Lagos State Government and vice versa.
Korodo assured that, “we are talking frequently now, they understand our predicament and we also understand their situation and their stand on the need to keep the expressways free at all times”. “You won’t see us fighting again because now we have come to understand ourselves better” he assured.
Also at the tank farms in Lagos, Shipping Position Daily gathered from Comrade Folaju Agbefawo, the Secretary to the Chairman of Obat depot unit of the union that the relationship at the depot is also cordial and that since the government has asked them to free the expressway, they have been doing so.
“Some of the trucks you see on the roads once in a while are those that came in to load products from the North” Folaju pointed out.
On the recent removal of police roadblocks, Alhaji Korodo said that the removal of the police from the highways is yet to be felt by the union before criminals’ high jacked the situation and start perpetrating all sorts of crimes on the highways at night.
According to him, the only sigh of relieve they have been able to heave is on the unnecessary traffic that is no longer on the roads.
He explained that their removal from the highways has led to an increase in cases of armed robbery and even attacks on some of the tanker drivers, “so, the presence of the police on the road is the beginning of wisdom for criminals”, he added.
He however regretted that some of the police officers on the highways usually compromise, even as he advised that government should further increase their remunerations in order to make the job attractive.
“If they are not well paid, the road blocks will return, or on the other hand, now that they have been asked to be patrolling the highway, they might just go and seat in a beer parlor and relax while the criminals go about their business” he cautioned.
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