Following anxiety in Lagos yesterday that it has made good its promise to withdraw its services and stop the loading of petroleum products at all the depots in Lagos, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has said that it has never ordered its members to go on the purported strike yet.
The NUPENG had threatened to embark on solidarity strike to support doctors in the employment of the Lagos state government who are currently engaged in a protracted labour dispute with the state government.
Following anxiety in Lagos yesterday that it has made good its promise to withdraw its services and stop the loading of petroleum products at all the depots in Lagos, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has said that it has never ordered its members to go on the purported strike yet.
The NUPENG had threatened to embark on solidarity strike to support doctors in the employment of the Lagos state government who are currently engaged in a protracted labour dispute with the state government.
The Assistant Zonal Secretary of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG; Comrade Tayo Boyeji who spoke with our correspondent in reaction to reports in the media said that there has been no authorisation from the hierarchy of the union to the tanker drivers to withdraw their services, he confirmed that the union has threatened to go on strike, but the action has not yet started.
Another member of the union, Comrade Owolabi Jimoh confirmed that the tanker drivers are yet to get the go- ahead to withdraw their services.
Owolabi said that there are more than 150 branches of NUPENG and that of all these, the PTD is the most relevant in the sense that "we are the drivers of these products, and if we should embark on strike today, in two hours the effect will be felt" he said.
However, Shipping Position Daily correspondent who conducted a random check on the tank farms in Lagos yesterday confirmed that even though there are products at the tank farms, some of the depots were not loading products at all, while the pace at which they load products at other farms was very slow.
There was also apprehension at the Kirikiri end of Apapa Lagos yesterday morning when our correspondent visited the area as petroleum tankers that are supposed to load products at the clustered tank farms had taken to the expressway in what seems like an expectation of an ‘order from above’ to commence the strike.
When our correspondent called his number yesterday at press time, the Lagos Zonal Council Chairman of NUPENG, Alhaji Nojeem Korodo was said to be in a closed door meeting.
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