Stubborn Tanker Drivers

 

 

By Alex Akinyele

Last week, the Petrol Tanker Drivers Union, PTDU, Lagos zone, an arm of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, held Lagos, the nation’s commercial capital, to ransom when they embarked on yet another strike. This time, again, it was triggered by the seizure of tankers by the Lagos government over alleged wrongful parking on the highways. The development caught many motorists unawares, resulting in queues at filling stations because many motorists rushed to the fuel stations to fill their tanks.

 

The drivers were protesting the alleged arrest and impounding of 50 tankers belonging to some of them at Toyota Bus Stop on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway and around Folawiyo Tank Farm, Apapa, by officials of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA. The drivers claimed that LASTMA was demanding payment of N150,000 to secure the release of each truck. NUPENG rejected this and asked its members to withdraw their tankers from the road. Last week, Nojeem Korodo, the Executive Secretary, PTDU, Lagos Zone, accused the Lagos State government of high-handness in the matter and said the union would not call off its action until all the seized fuel trucks were released. He charged that LASTMA officials had unduly focused their attention on tanker drivers, with a target to raise funds for the state government against the backdrop of the current financial meltdown.

 
However, the state government vowed never to allow the tanker drivers to subject the state government to blackmail by embarking on strike any time they are arrested for unlawfulness. At a news conference last week, Prof. Bamidele Badejo, Commissioner for Transportation, said the state government would not succumb to the strike embarked on by the tanker drivers. It will be recalled that this is not the first time the tanker drivers would be holding Lagosians to ransom over illegal parking. They went on strike in a similar manner last year, refusing to lift fuel to protest the seizure of some of their trucks for illegal parking. In the yuletide season of 2007 also, they withdrew their trucks to protest alleged high-handness of LASTMA officials, which impounded some of the tankers illegally parked on the Orile-Iganmu and Ijora bridges.Badejo stressed that the state government would no longer condone the excesses of any union to the detriment of the generality of the citizenry. He said the tanker drivers were behaving as if they were above the law, flouting the state’s traffic rules without considering other road users. “For how long are we going to continue this way? We are tired of this blackmail by the tanker drivers,” he lamented, emphasising that only 27 trucks were impounded, not the 50 claimed by the drivers. The commissioner also disclosed that the state government is devising a plan that would demystify tanker drivers and make them less relevant in the state.

Many commuters who set out for work early last Monday spent hours at bus stops, as few commercial vehicles were available to convey them to their destinations. The few on the roads took advantage of the situation to jack up their fares by as much as 50 per cent. However, last Tuesday, the tanker drivers called off the four-day strike after the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation paid a fine of N2.7 million to the Lagos State Government on their impounded trucks. The new twist was made known during a joint press briefing by the LASTMA and the Lagos State chapter of the Tanker Drivers Association of NUPENG.

Speaking at the event, Kayode Opeifa, Special Adviser to the Lagos Governor on Transportation, said N2.7 million was paid as fines for the release of 27 trucks. Apologising to Nigerians for the inconveniences they suffered within the period, he explained that the government took the action to uphold the law of the land and advised tanker drivers to always be law abiding.

Did you Enjoy this story? you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Random Post

• February 16, 2009 -- Settlement In Jeopardy (0)
• December 9, 2008 -- How I Became A Success (0)
• December 9, 2009 -- Hello world! (1)
• April 28, 2008 -- My Regret As Power Minister —Liyel Imoke (0)
• December 3, 2009 -- For Banks, It’s Time For Cost-Cutting (0)
• May 11, 2008 -- Our Exploits As Campus Armed Robbers (1)
• March 23, 2009 -- Victory For Akala (0)
• January 21, 2010 -- The Yar’Adua Controversy (2)
• January 26, 2009 -- The Man, Obama (0)
• October 20, 2008 -- Speaking ‘Treason’ Fluently—Wale Adebanwi (5)

No tags for this post.

Related posts

• No related posts.