No fewer than 15 vessels laden with petroleum products are stranded on the high sea, investigations have shown.
This followed the indefinite strike embarked upon by members of the petroleum industry workers five days ago over N85 billion unfunded pension fund.
Sources close to Motor Transport Division (MTD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) made this known on Friday in Lagos.
No fewer than 15 vessels laden with petroleum products are stranded on the high sea, investigations have shown.
This followed the indefinite strike embarked upon by members of the petroleum industry workers five days ago over N85 billion unfunded pension fund.
Sources close to Motor Transport Division (MTD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) made this known on Friday in Lagos.
Members of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), had on Monday embarked on an indefinite strike.
The strike followed unresolved pensions issues between the unions and NNPC.
The pension issues was also further compounded by the revocation of the license of the NNPC pension scheme because of alleged inability of the corporation to bridge the N85 billion gap in their scheme.
The unions’ strike had led to the shutdown of NNPC depots and its subsidiary operations nationwide.
A senior official of the MTD, who wants to remain anonymous, said that no vessel could berth at the Apapa or Atlas Cove jetty due to the union’s strike.
“Once all the current vessels at the Apapa port leaves the shore, no vessels can come to berth or discharge, because most of the NNPC MTD workers, who are saddled with the scheduled of allocation and distribution of products are on strike.
“We hope the unions call off the strikes today (Friday), if not Nigerians would experience harsh situation as most filling stations are gradually running out of stocks.
“Over 15 vessels had been stranded on the high sea due to the strike because nobody can schedule them for discharge, this has also depleted the country’s product reserves which is sending wrong signals,’’ the source said.
Meanwhile, the Lagos Zonal Chairman of NUPENG, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, said they would demand for solidarity strike from other unions, if the ongoing dialogue with NNPC management fails to yield positive result.
“We want to make this clear. It is not Nigerians that are the problems. We don’t want to unnecessarily punish Nigerians.
“The point is that if the NNPC continues to neglect our demands, we will then call for solidarity support and ground all operations,” Korodo said.
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