A stakeholder in the business of circulation and distribution of petroleum products; Alhaji Auwalu Ilu has said that the insecurity and unrest that is being witnessed in the northern part of the country on account of the activities of the dreaded islamic sect; Boko Haram, has affected the movement of product as well as the profits of haulage companies.
The operator, who is the Chairman of Ultimate Gas Ltd, spoke with Shipping Position Daily last week in Lagos and lamented that transportation is now the most difficult business in Nigeria.
A stakeholder in the business of circulation and distribution of petroleum products; Alhaji Auwalu Ilu has said that the insecurity and unrest that is being witnessed in the northern part of the country on account of the activities of the dreaded islamic sect; Boko Haram, has affected the movement of product as well as the profits of haulage companies.
The operator, who is the Chairman of Ultimate Gas Ltd, spoke with Shipping Position Daily last week in Lagos and lamented that transportation is now the most difficult business in Nigeria.
Apart from the insecurity in the North, Auwalu said that there is a new trend on the highways where armed robbers pose as police officers and divert petroleum products after beating the tanker driver to a pulp.
Speaking further, Auwalu said that the insurgency has definitely affected business, he pointed out that "if you have insecurity anywhere, it affects businesses, there is no free movement, there are areas now that you cannot even go to"
"Like now in Maiduguri, a lot of drivers no matter how much you give them, they won’t take products to Maidugri, like when there was a crisis in Jos, you can’t even get petroleum product because a lot of drivers did not want to go there".
"There is a new trend now in the industry, people come out in fake police and army uniform, arrest a truck, discharge the goods, be it petroleum product or rice, and they abandon the truck somewhere"
"People are scared now when they see checkpoints on the road because they are not sure if its the real police or fake police"
He however fingered some of the tanker drivers for complicity in the diversion of trucks.
According to him, many of them connive with the motor boys in other to dupe the product owner and the truck owner. He said that most of the time they divert the trucks and adulterate its content with other products.
Stating some of the problems, Auwalu identified, "the attitude of the driver, the state of the road, the adulteration, and so on".
Discussion about this post