Petroleum tanker drivers operating under the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have raised alarm once again over the continued increase in the highjack of their trucks by armed robbers, especially along the Lagos- Ibadan expressway.
The latest in the series of highjack took place last week as a truck fully loaded with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol was highjacked along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and was later dumped at Badagry area after the product has been siphoned.
Petroleum tanker drivers operating under the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have raised alarm once again over the continued increase in the highjack of their trucks by armed robbers, especially along the Lagos- Ibadan expressway.
The latest in the series of highjack took place last week as a truck fully loaded with Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) known as petrol was highjacked along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway and was later dumped at Badagry area after the product has been siphoned.
The tanker drivers have also called on the board of the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) to extend the tracking of petroleum products to cover the truck itself.
According to some of the truck drivers who spoke with Shipping Position Daily in Lagos last week, the ‘Project Aquila’ scheme which is currently being operated by PEF only monitors the product being conveyed by the truck and that PEF is not concerned if the truck is damaged or stolen.
Confirming the truck highjack to our correspondent, the Chairman of the PTD traffic taskforce at the Ibafon tank farms, Alhaji Ismaila Oshoku said that the truck was recovered around Oko-Afo in Badagry.
“The truck was snatched around Ibadan on its way to Abuja, but it was later recovered around Badagry area of Lagos, the driver was chained to a tree, it was through the project Aquila that the truck could be recovered” he said
Another truck driver told our correspondent that the highjack usually take place in holdups, “the armed robbers bring out their gun and threaten the driver”.
“PEF should not have a particular closing hour because a product can be highjacked in the night and before morning the product would have been siphoned, it is only the tank that is being monitored and not the truck, the truck head can be stolen without PEF knowing about it”
“They are more concerned about the product, until the product gets to its destination before they will pay you bridging claims; they are not bothered if the truck is stolen”.
According to him, “what individual tanker owners have been doing is to register their truck for personal tracking with network providers like MTN, Globalcom and the rest; it ranges from 60,000 and above. The tracking is done inside the engine of the truck without the knowledge of the manager of the truck or the drivers”.
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