As controversy rages over the sack of over 70 tanker drivers sacked by the General Secretary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Afolabi Olawale and endorsed by the President, Williams Akporeha, the affected individuals have taken to various platforms to express their displeasure.
This development was coming barely 24 hours to the official commissioning of the newly built NUPENG National Secretariat, known as NUPENG Tower, an event scheduled to take place at Jibowu, Lagos on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
These tanker drivers were the ones driving the trucks belonging to the national chairman of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Branch of NUPENG, Comrade Lucky Osesua and his team of executives, including Comrade Garga Dayyabu, Comrade Olabisi Akinlolu, Comrade Emmanuel Isele etc.
The drivers who are grossly hapless, devastated and currently in abject poverty are now telling their stories and expressing their disappointments in NUPENG, especially the General Secretary for being the architect of their ordeal.
They were also surprised that a Union expected to protect their jobs was the one that has deliberately rendered them unemployed without recourse to empathy or any form of assistance or compensation to cushion the effects of the hardship they are presently going through.
One of the affected drivers in Lagos, Kehinde Dada, a.k.a. Baba Ibeji, lamented that after serving the union for years, his job was abruptly stopped, because a letter which was signed by the General Secretary of NUPENG directed that trucks belonging to Comrade Lucky Osesua and his team should no longer lift fuel in all the loading depots in Nigeria without putting into account the consequences such action will have on the affected Petroleum Tanker Drivers whose jobs will be terminated. According to him, while on the job, he acquired his first and second degrees in Library and Information Science, but Afolabi has dashed his hope of progressing more in his life and career.
Similarly, another driver from Sapele who simply gave his name as Kingsley said:
“The action taken by the Afolabi Olawale against the Osesua faction of PTD was rather harsh and drastic. I personally don’t have any other job. I feed my family with the driving job. The leadership of NUPENG under Afolabi as the General Secretary is not portraying the traits of a good leader. A good leader should be able to seek advice, but he is going about this issue wrongly. By now peace should have been restored in PTD, the two factions ought to have been reconciled, but the whole place is currently in serious turmoil, with many court cases here and there, and drivers are seriously suffering, some are in hospitals, some have even died. These people in NUPENG should know that there is God who will reward them and their generations the same coin they served others,” he lamented.
Alhaji Mukhtar Mohammed, also one of the affected taker drivers in Kaduna narrated his experience:
“It is disgusting and embarrassing to see that the one-time Trade Union which was organized and brought to limelight by the late Chief (Comrade) Frank Ovie Kokori with the objective to protect the interest and foster better working conditions for the blue collar employees in the Nigeria’s oil and gas sector would come this low. I really paid my dues in PTD, it is so unfortunate that Afolabi will treat me and my other colleagues like this. I am now managing my family with Okada driving, with very low returns.
"Somebody should come to our aid and take us out of this sad and avoidable situation. One man has messed up both PTD and NUPENG. The stake in PTD, particularly access to administrative, operational and economic incentives and other opportunities should not be left in the hands of stooges who want to siphon the common patrimony of PTD under the whimps and caprice of overzealous leaders in NUPENG, that is why concerned members of PTD of good conscience are saying enough is enough. Comrads Lucky Osesua, Comrade (Hon.) Dayyabu Yusuf Garga, Comrade (Chief) Peter Moudebelu (ONWA), Comrade Humble Obinna Power, Comrade Olabisi Akinlolu etc, are capable of driving the affairs of PTD and I pray that God will restore them back to the National office of PTD as our leaders.
"Meanwhile, the popular cry in PTD now is that it must be allowed to breathe such that members could peacefully and conveniently be proud and better for what they are doing as we continue to traverse the length and breadth of Nigeria through distribution and transportation of Petroleum products and supply of gas to Nigerians in their homes, offices and factories.
"It is not about building a 7-storey Tower with no economic significance, these leaders should do better for the members and make their lives more meaningful and abundant. We also learnt from good authority that the PTD's money that was used to erect NUPENG Tower during Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti's tenure when he was our national chairman was made possible because he is eyeing to be NUPENG President after the tenure of Williams Akporeha, meanwhile the General Secretary of NUPENG Afolabi who is not a member of PTD but a paid staff of NUPENG is also eyeing the exalted position of NUPENG President, and secretly planning to resign six months to the end of his tenure in April 2026. I have never seen this type of desperation in my life.
"NUPENG now totters towards a dangerous and avoidable canyon of dry bones, as its staff members and branch members can no longer recognise their union which has been battered by men and women from the dark womb of time", Mohammed who spoke in tears stated.
Charles Ibe on his part, a driver also who lives in Port Harcourt and father of five narrated, “I am a father of 5, two of my children are no longer in school because I no longer have a truck to drive. Since 2023 when this PTD crisis started its been hell for all tanker drivers who are driving trucks belonging to Comrade Lucky Osesua. It's a huge surprise to see that the leadership of NUPENG particularly the General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale grounded all the trucks belonging not just to the National Chairman of PTD and that of the deputy Chairmen but other national executives of PTD who belong to Comrade Osesua's camp. NUPENG also stopped all the trucks that are supposed to take products to their gas stations.
“This oppressive style of leadership is very strange to us and we urge the government and the public to take note of this flagrant abuse of power. We are tired of seeing wicked people in positions of authority in NUPENG, instead of creating jobs and protecting jobs, you are now the one forcefully pushing people into joblessness, abject poverty, desolation and pain. We want the government to urgently intervene in the affairs of PTD and NUPENG and help to restore sanity.”
Charles further said, "In the interest of industrial peace and harmony, it is urgently expected of the Presidency, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Department of State Services, Police, National Security Adviser, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, National Assembly (Senate & House of Representatives), Civil Society Organisations, NLC, MOMAN, NARTO, TUC, DAPMAN, Elders/Veterans of NUPENG and all other critical stakeholders to look into the current execrable situation in the PTD Branch of NUPENG and find it a lasting peace, before it spirals out of control and set the country’s economy into an avoidable implosion."