Tanker drivers threaten breakaway from NUPENG amid leadership crisis

The Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) arm of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), on Sunday, threatened to pull out of the Union.

PTD declared that it would pull out of the oil union if Williams Akporeha, and Olawale Afolabi, NUPENG’s National President, and General Secretary respectively, failed to resign from their positions.

The tanker drivers made this known in a statement issued in Abuja and jointly signed by Gbenga Olawale and Adekunle Rufai of PTD, Ibadan Depot.

The statement said the drivers staged the protest across the country, putting plant leaves in front of their trucks, and warned NUPENG and the police against interference and incessant harassment of their leaders.

They alleged that the NUPENG president lacked the required competence to lead the union because he was not a member of the oil union.

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According to them, Williams was a cook in an oil company from the formal sector and was sacked from the company while holding the office of the national treasurer of NUPENG.

They further alleged that he was later drafted into the Petrol Station Workers Union of NUPENG to enable him to contest the election as NUPENG President.

According to them, this was a total departure from the constitution of NUPENG, because Williams was not a worker or a pump attendant on record, as at the time he was verifying for the position of president.

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To this effect, they said he could not be president of NUPENG. They also alleged that he had planted all his surrogates to collect all the revenue of the union and use it for themselves.

The tanker drivers therefore stated that had decided to stand with lucky Osusan and Dayyab Garaga who had laid their lives to ensure that they were liberated.

But the NUPENG secretary told our correspondent that the claims were false, as the faction that issued the statement were not PTD members.

Afolabi said the faction’s leaders that issued the statement had been arrested and detained at Kuje prison in Abuja.

“They are not PTD members, their leaders attacked us recently in Abuja and were arrested and jailed in Kuje prison, Abuja, on the orders of the court,” the NUPENG secretary said.