Fuel scarcity looms as petroleum tanker drivers threaten strike

Nigerians may be in for another round of scarcity of petroleum products in the New Year as members of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of National Union of Petroleum and Engineering Gas Workers (NUPENG) have threatened to withdraw their services from January 15, 2020, should the Federal Government fail to clear Lagos roads of containers.

Speaking in Benin at the weekend at the end of the quarterly branch Executive meeting of Petroleum Tanker Drivers, the national chairman of the drivers, Comrade Salmom Akanni Oladiti insisted that the January 15 deadline arose as a result of the inability of the federal task force set up to decongest Lagos roads of trucks carrying containers.

Oladiti conceded that the task force may have tried it best to carry out its mandate but the problem of gridlocks on the roads, particularly at Coconut and Tin Can Island axes, persist, a situation which forces their members to always spend weeks before loading petroleum products from the Lagos Tank farm.

The chairman lamented that vandals have destroyed pipelines across the country which were meant to ensure free flow of petroleum products all over the country.