* NUPENG issues strike notice over workers’ welfare
Scarcity of petrol worsened in Abuja on Monday raising fears that the situation could spread to other parts of the country.
Motorists spent hours on queues in petrol stations, as haulage companies and marketers raised concerns over changes in retail price.
The development was further worsened by the implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), especially the inability of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority to resolve the bridge of fuel transportation.
Most fuel stations belonging to Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), including Total, Mobil, Eternal and others, were shut while a handful that sold the product dispensed from few pumps.
Vehicles on the queue to buy petrol
The issue, which affected both city centres and suburbs, threatens to cripple economic activities across the country, particularly the northern region.
Vice President of IPMAN, Abubakar Shettima, said a meeting between marketers and the government last week Thursday did not produce significant results.
He said independent depot owners now sell the product at a wholesale price of N158, insisting the rate is unsustainable if marketers must sell at the pump of N165 per litre.
Fuel scarcity
He said though the Federal government, last week, engaged marketers, assuring that the bottleneck over payment of transportation bridging would be addressed, nothing different has happened.
Despite the worsening situation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) had said there is no reason for the public to engage in panic buying.
The national oil company said it has over 1.7 billion litres of petrol in stock, adding that more are expected to arrive in the country daily over the coming weeks and months.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) has issued the Federal government a two-week strike notice, raising the possibility of fuel scarcity.
NUPENG members basically control the downstream arm of the oil sector and an industrial action by the union would ground the supply and distribution of petrol nationwide.
NUPENG, calling on the government to attend to oil workers’ welfare, warned that it would begin the proposed strike at the expiration of the notice.
This was made known through a statement signed by NUPENG President, Williams Akhoreha, and General Secretary, Olawale Afolabi.
The Union listed non-payment of workers’ salaries, title benefits, among others, as reasons for its resolution.
The resolution read in part, “We write to convey to the general public and all relevant government agencies the resolution of the special national delegates conference to issue a 14-day notice of a nationwide industrial action if some legitimate welfare and membership related issues that have been variously resolved in our favour even by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment are not adequately and conclusively addressed and resolved within the next 14 days.
“This ultimatum takes effect from Monday, November 15, 2021.”
Outlining some of the issues, NUPENG mentioned that the first one was the outstanding short payment of terminal benefits to members who were declared redundant in 2012 by the management of Chevron Nigeria limited.
The Union added that contract workers working in Oil Mining Lease 42 of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, a subsidiary of NNPC, were also owed salaries and allowances for upwards of eight to 10 months.