The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers on Tuesday reacted to the claim of fuel diversion by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, describing it as a cover-up for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s inefficiency in providing adequate supply.
Kachikwu had on Monday said trucks conveying petrol were being diverted from Lagos to Cameroon and Chad, adding that fuel scarcity had persisted mainly because the NNPC could not track the trucks.
However, the Chairman, NUPENG, Lagos Zone, Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, said in a telephone interview with our correspondent, “I don’t believe that that statement is correct. He (Kachikwu) is only trying to look for a cover-up for the inefficiency on the part of the NNPC. If you say somebody is diverting and it is so clear to you as a minister, what have you done to prevent a recurrence and who are those responsible for the diversion? Is it the drivers, the marketers or the transporters?
“If at all there is diversion, as alleged, what is the function of our law enforcement agents? What are they doing? Are they compromised? He is a government official and he should always be mindful of his statements. This is the man that has given series of reasons for the lingering fuel scarcity.”
The problem, according to Korodo, is that there is inadequate fuel supply in the country.
On the tracking devices the minister said the government would instal on tankers, the NUPENG chairman said, “He has said it several times. On the issue of tracking device, I can tell you categorically that over 80 per cent of the tankers in Nigeria have tracking devices installed by the transporters. What he is telling us is not a new thing. It is a political statement.”
The National Chairman, Petroleum Tanker Drivers Branch, NUPENG, Mr. Salimon Oladiti, recalled that the minister had recently said that fuel queues might not disappear until May.
(Punch)
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