28th October, 2015
Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
Less than a week after members of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas, NUPENG, called off their strike in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, another round of shortage of petroleum products has hit the oil-rich city.
It was learnt that the present shortage is attributed to the refusal of tank farm and depot owners to sell products to marketers.
The depot owners are protesting against the delay in payment of petroleum subsidy by the Federal Government.
Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) Rivers State dropped this hint on its official Facebook page posted today, saying “We would like to clarify that the current shortage of petroleum products experienced in Rivers State has nothing to do with NUPENG, PENGASSAN or even the Trade Union Congress.
“We understand that the shortage is mainly due to protest by tank farm and depot owners over the delay in payment of their subsidy claims. Essentially the tank farm and depot owners who at present supply the majority of the filling stations in Port Harcourt load one or two trucks per day and stop.
“The truth is that they have products but decided to embark on this Go-slow to draw the attention of the public to their situation.”
To remedy the situation and ensures adequate supply of petroleum products in the state an its environs before it deteriorates, TUC appealed to depot and tank farm owners to reconsider their position in the interest of the ordinary people who passed through harrowing experience just two weeks ago.
Residents of Rivers an its environs suffered untold hardships during the strike by NUPENG in the Port Harcourt zone that lasted for two weeks as getting petroleum products throughjout the period was very difficult.
Their grouse then was that Weatherford Nigeria Limited, an oil services company located in Trans Amadi Industrial Estate of Port Harcourt, victimized their members and in an attempt to picket the company armed policemen from the Rivers State Command brutalized some of their members with four of them hospitalized.
NUPENG on Wednesday, October 21, called off its crippling strike.
Before the strike was called off a communiqué endorsed by the State Chairman of TUC, Mr Chika Unuegbu; the Port Harcourt zonal Chairman of NUPENG, Mr Godwin Eruba and others, saying that at a stakeholders’ meeting in the office of the Secretary to the State Government, SSG, Mr Kenneth Kobani, the management of Weatherford, agreed to withdraw the letters of redundancy issued to 20 members of NUPENG and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, pending conclusion of negotiation between the firm and the unions.
Ending the strike brought relief to motorists and commuters who were forced into paying through their nose to buy the scarce petroleum products.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has not issued any official statement on the allegation of delayed payment of petroleum subsidy.