NUPENG threatens to down tool over poor condition of Ikorodu-Sagamu road

As part of measures to mount pressure on the Federal Government over the poor condition of Ikorodu-Sagamu road, especially at the Ogun State end, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) is threatening to stop the loading of petroleum products at the Mosimi depot in Ogun State.

The move to shut down Mosimi depot, which supplies Lagos, Ogun, Kwara and all other states in the South West, was revealed by Tokunbo Korodo, Lagos zonal chairman of NUPENG at the official commissioning of the ultra-modern secretariat of Independent Marketers, branch Mosimi unit at the weekend.

While justifying reason why NUPENG and PENGASAN, among others workers in the oil sector, refused to join the ongoing strike by a faction loyal to Waaba Ayuba-led Nigeria Labour Congress, Korodo said the strike action was not in the interest of Nigerian masses, but might go on strike to press home its demands on rehabilitation of Ikorodu-Sagamu road.

Speaking on the state of the road, the NUPENG leader in the South West said “the state of Sagamu-Ikorodu road is in a very bad shape and very sympathetic. This is where Nigerian government is getting volume of money from Mosimi depot, and the road that is doing that is not well rehabilitated.”

He added that NUPENG would not hesitate suspending loading of fuel for the people in Lagos and Ogun states as well as other adjourning states within the South West if the road was not repaired by the Federal Government to ease sufferings attached to haulage of petroleum product to other parts of the country.

Okorodo said: “A situation whereby we wake up in a day and signal to the government, now we also send another signal either to the state or federal, let anybody comes to the aid of the stakeholders that are making use of this road.

“And this is the only road that connects Ogun and Lagos state together apart from the Ibadan expressway.  And it is also an alternative route, the way tankers are passing and making use of that road, God forbid, if any tanker should fall, the aftermath will be too disastrous, that’s why we are using this medium to call on the government to urgently come and ensure proper rehabilitation, because if the government fails to do that, we will not hesitate to shut down the loading at the depot and that will be too bad because Ogun state Lagos and other states that are making use of the PMS  will  be starved of fuel.

Earlier, the Akarigbo and paramount ruler of Remoland, Oba Michael Adeniyi Sonariwo had blamed former President Olusegun Obasanjo over poor state of the federal roads in the area, explaining that he led a delegation to meet Obasanjo as President of the country, but did not heed to their call to fix the road.

He said: “When we were chasing Obasanjo over this road, in the end he did not perform and now he is putting the blame on us that the pressure was not enough, that’s all we got. There is nothing wrong in NNPC taking part in it, looking for the government to do the road; I think we are wasting our time.

“In Sagamu, we repair two miles of the road, if we can do it, there is no reason while NNPC cannot do it, the politics in this country is tricky. It is the North and North alone. Anytime I travel to the North, you see how the roads are well taken care of.”