Oil strike: PDP accuses NUPENG of sabotage

Nigeria’s ruling party, the PDP on Wednesday accused the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) of sabotaging the Federal Government`s effort at ensuring transparency and accountability in the petroleum industry.

National Publicity Secretary of the Party, Mr Olisa Metuh in a statement called on Nigerians to give their support to the government against “the tiny cabal of oil marketers and their political collaborators’’.

It described the cabal as “the real behind the scene puppeteers of the striking NUPENG’’.

The statement said that NUPENG`s decision to embark on a nationwide strike over Federal Government decision to stick to unimpeded transparency in the payment of subsidy claims was unpatriotic.

It further described NUPENG`s action as “a barefaced insensitivity to the outcry of Nigerians over the rot in the oil industry’’.

“No sensible government would allow a policy in a vital economic sector to be dictated by those who don’t have the interest of the nation at heart,’’ the statement said.

It stressed that the PDP-led Federal Government would not relent in fighting for the interest of the people, adding that Nigerians were greater than the oil marketers.

“ The NUPENG must not be allowed to appropriate the interests of the generality of the people, who bear the brunt of shady transactions in the petroleum subsidy management,’’ it said.

The statement said that NUPENG was fighting for the interest of the indicted oil marketers in the ongoing fuel subsidy probe and not for Nigeria.

It wondered why the union, which had been in the vanguard of calls for sanity in the subsidy regime was now standing against government’s decision to ensure transparency in the sector.The statement called on Nigerians to appreciate Federal Government`s stand on the matter, “because it is not fighting the cause of the PDP or that of the President but is fighting for all Nigerians’’.

“It is time for all of us who believe in the cause of transparent governance to rise to the occasion.

“The Federal Government cannot bow to pressure and be stampeded into paying fictitious subsidy claims to forestall the strike by NUPENG,” the statement said.

It urged NUPENG to see reason and call off its strike, and called on civil society organisations and well meaning Nigerians to join the Federal Government to fight corruption.

Meanwhile, NUPENG maintained some skeletal loading of petroleum products in Lagos, in spite of their face-off with the Federal Government.

Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, Chairman, Southwest Chapter of the Union, gave the petroleum products loading update in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said that the skeletal loading was in anticipation that the ongoing dialogue between the Federal Government and the union would be fruitful.

“Loading activities in Lagos is very low, while the entire Abuja has been grounded without petrol.

“We in Southwest are waiting for the outcome of the meeting of our national body with the Minister of Labour that is scheduled for today, before we will know the next line of action,’’ he said.

Korodo urged the Federal Government to publish names of marketers they have paid subsidy claims.

He expressed displeasure at what he called the inability of government to meet its earlier promise to pay outstanding subsidy claims within two weeks.

Mr Samuel Oyebode, the Vice-Chairman of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), Zenon II Unit, Apapa, said that they were optimistic about the outcome of their union’s meeting with government.

He said that loading of petroleum product in Apapa has been very slow, after the two-day Eid-el-Fitri holidays.

Oyebode urged government to avert the pending threat of a nationwide strike by fast tracking the payment of marketers’ subsidy claims.

Another NUPENG official, Mr Kabiru Ademuyiwa, the Secretary of PTD Time Unit of NUPENG said that there was need for a truce in the ongoing disagreement between the union and government.

“Marketers who borrowed money from banks are faced with lots of challenges for not paying back on time; if care is not taken, banks might seize their property– if they refused to pay as at when due,” he said.

NUPENG, on Monday threatened to embark on a nationwide strike from Thursday, unless oil marketers were paid their subsidy claims.