Following last week’s protest by petroleum tanker drivers under the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at the Ogere truck park in Ogun State, the union has accused the Ogun State Government of playing politics with the welfare of the drivers and that the government is the main cause of traffic gridlock experienced on the ever-busy expressway.
Passengers travelling along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway were last week Thursday stranded for about 13 hours as tanker drivers protested and blocked the highway.
Following last week’s protest by petroleum tanker drivers under the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) at the Ogere truck park in Ogun State, the union has accused the Ogun State Government of playing politics with the welfare of the drivers and that the government is the main cause of traffic gridlock experienced on the ever-busy expressway.
Passengers travelling along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway were last week Thursday stranded for about 13 hours as tanker drivers protested and blocked the highway.
A law enforcement officer had reportedly shot at the tyre of a fuel tanker marked JIGAWA CX 405 DUT which led to the blockage at the Ogere end of the Lagos- Ibadan expressway. The protesting tanker drivers had insisted that unless the tyre was replaced, they would remain on the road.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily shortly after the protest, the Assistant Secretary of the Petroleum Tanker Driver (PTD) branch of NUPENG, Comrade Tayo Boyeji alleged that the Ogun State Government is the main cause of the confusion at the truck park in Ogere-Remo in Ogun State.
Boyeji alleged that the state government had given the management and control of the park to the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) instead of giving it to the tanker drivers who have the highest interests and trucks within the park.
According to him, the lack of adequate management of the park has led to petroleum tankers parking anywhere available and that this has been the cause of the frequent accidents and traffic gridlock on the highway.
He alleged that the NURTW is only interested in the levy’s they are collecting at the park, saying that: “As it is, there is no control in that place, as far as the NURTW have collected their money successfully, they do not care where any tanker is parking”.
“Ogun State Government is playing politics with that park, they have asked the National Union of Road Transport Workers to be controlling the park, and meanwhile 80 percent of the trucks at the park belong to our members”, he lamented.
Boyeji maintained that the Ogun State government gave the place to NURTW because it is making use of the union during election campaigns, “we are not fighting them over it, let them maintain the place, but let there be sanity” he said.
Chairman of South-West of NUPENG, Alhaji Nojeem Korodo, had in a recent chat with Shipping Position Daily also said that the park is supposed to be given to NUPENG to manage and that NUPENG have no business with NURTW.
“There is no way you can co-exist the tanker drivers with the NURTW members, we are handling a highly inflammable product, but they are reckless in the affairs at times”, he stated.
“Because we are not so useful to them during the elections, and they (NURTW) are more useful, this is why they use them the way they like and this is why they pitch tent with them against Nigeria’s interest, and this is the cause of the chaos on the road, it will continue to be there until a listening government comes” he maintained.
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