Tanker drivers threaten nationwide strike, blame security agencies

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The Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers threatened to go on strike on Monday over what it said were illegal activities and high-handedness by security guards.

PTD said security guards, particularly the military task force operating in the union’s Port Harcourt area, had made it difficult for tanker drivers to operate in the area.

National Chairman, PTD-NUPENG, Lucky Osesua told reporters in Abuja that men from the military task force operating in Port Harcourt on Tuesday evening burned two trucks carrying High Pour Fuel Oil, otherwise known as black oil .

He said the truck drivers were falsely accused of transporting crude oil, adding that the trucks, which lifted the black oil at a Modular Refinery, Walter Smith Refinery and Petrochemical Ibigwe Imo State on Monday and Tuesday, were intercepted between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers. State.

Osesua gave the truck plate numbers as EFR 770 XA and AFZ 351 ZY. He said each of the vehicles was carrying 40,000 gallons of black oil to Bob & Sea Depot, Koko, Delta State.

He said the drivers of the two trucks were polite in their responses and presented all the necessary documents to the army officers, who ignored the documents, rejected the appeals and burned the trucks.

The PTD Chairman said, “The drivers presented waybills, NUPENG receipts and quality control documents. But the military always insisted that they were carrying crude oil.

They chased the two trucks and burned them between Ahoada and Elele in Rivers State on Tuesday night.

Without investigation, without reaching out to the refinery, where the drivers said they had removed the black oil, the soldiers set fire to the trucks in less than five hours.

Osesua said the documents were signed by Walter Smith refinery and petrochemicals manager Charles Okon indicating where the products were loaded.

He said the union had taken the decision to stop lifting products in its Port Harcourt area, adding that the same decision to stop loading across the country would be taken by Monday, except for the damage suffered due to authoritarian military task force. addressed.

Enough is enough about the authoritarianism of our security guards. They should stop demonizing our union and persecuting our men doing their normal business, the PTD President said.

He added, “We expect that in this modern world, trained security guards will be able to identify black oil from crude oil. We should not be victims of their ignorance.

Osesua further hinted that in a desperate move to clean up their actions, the soldiers mobilized those picking up remains in sight of the burned trucks.

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