Nigeria Content Online

The Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has called on Petroleum Tanker
Drivers (PTD) to give dialogue a chance in the ongoing dispute over the
killing of its members, the seizure of its trucks, and issues of the
retrenchment of its members.

The Group Managing
Director of the NNPC, Austen Oniwon, in a statement signed by the
organisation’s spokesperson, Levi Ajuonuma, on Tuesday, appealed to
parties in the dispute to consider the wider interest of Nigerians in
this usually busy holiday season.

“I appeal to the
tanker drivers to give the Federal Government an opportunity to resolve
the matter and ensure that justice and fairness is done. I am calling
on all stakeholders to rally round to support the stability we have
continued to enjoy in the downstream sector,” Mr. Oniwon said.

He also said that
there is abundant supply of petroleum products across the nation, and
urged consumers not to indulge in panic buying and marketers not to
indulge in any sharp practice that will create undue hardship for
Nigerians.

He further said the
Federal Government is looking into the issue to ensure a lasting
resolution, and called on the tanker drivers to call off their threats
of a strike and embrace the offer of dialogue by government.

The Petroleum
Tanker Drivers, which is a wing of the National Union of Petroleum and
Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), had on Monday embarked on a nationwide
warning strike to protest what they term the “indiscriminate
victimisation” of their workers by soldiers and the ‘mysterious’
disappearance of petroleum products.

NUPENG’s Lagos zone
chairman, Tokunbo Korede, told NEXT on Monday that the seven days
warning strike is coming after a 21-day ultimatum, which elapsed on
November 26, 2010, following a meeting with the Chief of Army Staff,
the director general of the State Security Service (SSS), the minister
of labour, and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation (NNPC).

He said the failure
of the government officials at the meeting to apprehend and prosecute
the army officials behind the assassination of a tanker driver in Jos
and the disappearance of several tankers, along with their petroleum
products, within military installations has necessitated them to push
their case.

“For how long are
they going to take to fish out those criminal uniformed men who are
behind all this? This is a seven-day warning strike for those saying we
are working on it to bring out a solution. They need to take us serious
because it will be too disastrous for the coming elections,” he said.

The two-day old strike has brought queues back to the filling stations.