Petroleum tanker drivers are set to resume lifting of products from today following a resolution reached between Lagos State government and Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
The union had directed its members- petroleum tankers, to withdraw their service in Lagos from Monday, August 10, to protest harassment, intimation and extortion by security personnel and street urchins (area boys), insisting that the strike would continue until the Lagos State government stepped in.
At a meeting between the government and representatives of the union which lasted for some hours on Monday, the parties agreed that the state government would meet with various security agencies and secure their commitment to ensure free passage for tankers. The state government also promised to address the menace of area boys in Lagos.
The government in a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting and signed by Olalere Odusote, Lags State commissioner for energy and mineral resources, and Solomon Kilanko, deputy national president of NUPENG, the government also promised to look into the issue of bad roads, which the tanker drivers also complained about.
The government further promised to check the issue of overloading of trucks and come up with appropriate timing for tankers’ movement in Lagos within the next two weeks.
The tanker drivers commenced the strike on Monday, August 10, to protest what they term harassment, intimidation and unrestrained extortion by security personnel and other groups, in Lagos. They list those involved to include the police, FRSC, LASTMA, street urchins, who stop petroleum tankers at will, to demand for money before allowing passage in different parts of Lagos metropolis.
