OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, says there is no going back on its planned strike after talks with the Lagos State Government, LASG, on how to avert the action ended without meaningful agreement.
In an interview on Sunday, South-West Chairman of NUPENG, Mr. Tayo Aboyeji, said the union could not get the LASG to resolve pending issues which had necessitated call for the strike.
“They only promised to get back to us after we have told them what we want to avert the strike.
“Now, our stand still remains that they should address the issues of extortion and harassment of our members by security agents.
“Security agents and hoodlums are extorting our members and officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management uses taser on our drivers and this can kill.
“Since they are not ready to address these issues, we will start the strike on Monday morning until they are able to resolve them.
“It is unfortunate that the strike might affect all other states in the federation because most of them load their petroleum products in Lagos depots.
“We are not happy to disrupt fuel supply because we know the effect but we cannot continue to cope with the problems,” he said.
The National President of the NUPENG, Mr. Williams Akporeha on Friday, issued a statement directing tanker drivers to withdraw their services as from 12:midnight on Monday.
To this effect, queues are expected to start building up at filling stations in Lagos starting from Tuesday.
