Worried by the deplorable condition of roads across the country as well as the casualisation of workers in the oil and gas sector, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, (NUPENG), 21-day ultimatum issued to the Federal Government to address the problems or risk the suspension of supply of petroleum products to the Federal Capital territory, Abuja expires today.
The ultimatum was the highpoint of the union’s national executive council meeting which held in Ibadan where its national chairman, Achese Igwe, frowned at the rampant accidents on the nations’ roads and which often lead to death of innocent persons especially his members.
He stressed that at the expiration of the deadline and to stop further carnages on the roads, the union would stop further supply of petroleum products to Abuja.
The union leader identified some of the bad roads in the country to include: Port Harcourt-Aba Expressway, those in Rivers, Abia, Enugu, Bayelsa as well as in the East, which he said have all become death traps where tankers are parked, attacked and burnt, resulting in the death of their members.
Justifying the decision to single out Abuja, Igwe said Nigerians are already facing hard times and NUPENG would not want to further complicate issues, hence its decision to focus on the seat of power.
“The union hereby resolved to issue a 21-day ultimatum to the Federal Government with effect from Monday, July 12, 2010, to repair bad roads across the country as well as prevail on the oil companies and their contractors to put in place viable conditions of service for contract workers in the industry. Failure of the government to adhere to our 21-day ultimatum will result in stoppage of petroleum products supply to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja,” Igwe had said recently.
On the possibility of the Federal Government repairing roads within 21-day, the NUPENG chief said if roads could be repaired at night in Abuja, then nothing stops them from extending same to others as well.
“Our politicians do travel out and they see how road construction is done. In Nigeria, they would wait till the roads are terribly bad to such an extent that lives would be lost. They would wait till they claim a huge amount of money for road repair. We believe that the ultimatum is enough. It is sad to note that on Aba road, two tankers somersaulted and burnt two members to death. Not only that, it also burnt other vehicles behind the tanker,” he added.
Igwe also frowned at the casualisation of workers in the oil and gas industry, which had left the workers with no job security or condition of service and demanded a review of the exercise.
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