Press Releases

Petrol Tanker Drivers’ Strike, A Cheap Blackmail - LASG

Apr 20, 2009 - The Lagos State Government on Monday described the recent strike embarked upon by Petrol Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) as a cheap blackmail action which is aimed at subjecting the citizenry to unnecessary hardship.

According to the Commissioner for Transportation, Professor Bamidele Badejo who spoke at the Bagauda Kaltho Press Centre, Alausa on the situation which has led to long queues at filling stations across the state, the activities of tanker drivers have continued to pose heavy challenges to the state.

Professor Bamidele Badejo added that amongst the various organizations and industries in the state that makes use of trucks and haulage vehicles, the Petrol Tanker Drivers have always blackmailed the state with the tool of strike.

“Officials of the state have had series of meetings and dialogue with this particular group of operators on our roads. Anytime the Ministry of Transportation, especially through LASTMA and the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO), contravene them, they threaten to go on strike and this has become a recurring issue, of which as far as I am concerned, we cannot continue to allow them to subject us to blackmail”, Professor Badejo said.

Also speaking, Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa noted that contrary to reports by NUPENG that its members were harassed and extorted by LASTMA officials, it was LASTMA officials who were subjected to physical attacks with stones and petrol bombs by hundreds of NUPENG workers when they attempted to peacefully move the tankers packed on the service lane of the Oshodi/ Apapa Expressway.

He added that about four of its officials sustained various injuries during the attack while the operation lasted.

Mr Opeifa who backed his report with video clips of the operation by LASTMA to move the tankers off the road added that NUPENG members embarked on the strike based on false information it received from its members.

“On Friday I got a call from a member of the public that tanker drivers had blocked the entire Oshodi Apapa expressway, the first thing I did was to call LASTMA and they confirmed that they were moving to curb the situation. The intention of LASTMA was to go there and persuade them to leave giving them one hour but when LASTMA got there, they were attacked with stones and cutlasses”.

“When we saw that they were not willing to comply, I called the Lagos Zonal Secretary of NUPENG, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo who confirmed that he was aware of the incidence and told me that LASTMA had arrested about a hundred persons from the rank of his members

But, when I called LASTMA, I was told that it was only three men that were arrested and it was the Police that effected the arrest and the arrest was as a result of their refusal to comply with the laws of Lagos State”.