See Why NUPENG Will Suspend Fuel Supply To Lagos
The ongoing fuel scarcity in parts of the country, especially in Lagos state, might bite harder as the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) hinted that it will suspend the supply of the commodity to the mega city.
Workers at one of the oil rigs in Nigeria.
The South-West Chairman of the union, Tokunbo Korodo, made this known in Lagos on Tuesday, December 29, during a chat with NAN
reporter.
According to him, the reason for the aforementioned decision to cut supply to the state is because Lagos State Government (LASG) owes over N224 million debt.
Korodo said the debt accrued from a contract awarded to the union by the state government, adding that the N224 million was for payment for the supply of diesel and kerosene to the government for direct labour projects in Ojodu which were executed between October 2014 and May 2015.
The chairman disclosed further that the said contract was financed by Skye Bank, and that the financial institution had been asking for repayment of the loan.
“All efforts to prevail on state government to pay this money through our letter dated Dec. 2, 2015 which was acknowledged on Dec.4 proved abortive. Now, the union is left with no option than to stop supplying petroleum products to all parastatal agencies of Lagos State.
“From today on, if this is not effective, we may be forced to abandon Lagos as a whole to demand for this payment as Skye Bank is on our neck for this payment,” Korodo said.
He added that NUPENG had reached out to the Governor, Deputy Governor, Secretary to the State Government and the State Commissioner of Transportation on the issue, but to no avail.
Korodo who threatened that all unions in the oil sector would participate in the planned action, said: “If this payment is not made on time every union under oil workers will participate because an injury to one person of the union is injury to all members.”
When contacted, officials of the state ministry of transportation declined to comment on pretext that they are authorised to talk to newsmen on the matter.
Meanwhile, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) had earlier given federal government conditions before accepting the decision to remove subsidy on petrol (PMS).
The southwest chairman of the union during a dialogued with newsmen in Lagos, on Monday, December 28, promised Nigerians that fuel scarcity would soon be a thing of the past as PMS will be available at filling stations.
No comments