Long queues persist as NUPENG blames fuel scarcity on cabal

As fuel scarcity bites harder across the country, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has attributed the situation to what he described as cabal in the downstream sector. He said that tanker drivers are not on strike.

NUPENG, in a release yesterday, said its members are not responsible for the present shortage of petroleum products being experienced nationwide.

According to its president, Mr Igwe Achese, Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG are working and lifting products to the nooks and crannies of the country.

The union said its members are not on strike and should not be blamed for the current scarcity of petroleum products in the country.

It blamed the policy makers of the country for not adhering to its calls for the urgent need to rehabilitate the nation’s four refineries to get them working optimally.

NUPENG stated that the cabal in the downstream sector are at work sabotaging all efforts to make products available through revamping of the nation’s four refineries.

It added that the Fedral Government must act fast to make petroleum products available especially during the yuletide period.

The union also called for the setting up of a multi-agency task force to decongest the Apapa highway to the depots and Tincan Island ports so that tankers and trucks can load products and goods without hindering the construction work currently going on in the area.

Meanwhile, long queues of vehicles at filling stations persisted yesterday as most stations belonging to independent oil marketers remained shut.

A litre of fuel is still sold at N145 at the filling stations in the metropolis while those who hawk the product in jerrycans were, however not sighted anywhere in the surveyed areas of the metropolis.