Tanker Drivers Sacked By NUPENG Basic Secretary, Afolabi Olawale Lament Ordeal

As controversy rages over the sack of over 70 tanker drivers sacked by the Basic Secre­tary of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Pure Gasoline Employees (NUPENG) Afolabi Olawale and endorsed by the President, Williams Akporeha, the affected people have taken to numerous platforms to precise their displeasure.

This growth was coming barely 24 hours to the official commissioning of the newly constructed NUPENG Nationwide Secretariat, often called NUPENG Tower, an occasion scheduled to happen at Jibowu, Lagos on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.

These tanker drivers have been those driving the vehicles belonging to the nationwide chairman of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Department of NUPENG, Comrade Fortunate Osesua and his group of executives, together with Comrade Garga Dayyabu, Comrade Olabisi Akinlolu, Comrade Emmanuel Isele and so on. 

The drivers who’re grossly hapless, devastated and presently in abject poverty are actually telling their tales and expressing their disappointments in NUPENG, particularly the Basic Secretary for being the architect of their ordeal.

They have been additionally stunned {that a} Union anticipated to guard their jobs was the one which has intentionally rendered them unemployed with out recourse to empathy or any type of help or compensation to cushion the results of the hardship they’re presently going via.

One of many affected drivers in Lagos, Kehinde Dada, a.okay.a. Baba Ibeji, lamented that after serving the union for years, his job was abruptly stopped, as a result of a letter which was signed by the Basic Secretary of NUPENG directed that vehicles belonging to Comrade Fortunate Osesua and his group ought to now not carry gasoline in all of the loading depots in Nigeria with out placing into consideration the implications such motion may have on the affected Petroleum Tanker Drivers whose jobs will likely be terminated. In keeping with him, whereas on the job, he acquired his first and second levels in Library and Info Science, however Afolabi has dashed his hope of progressing extra in his life and profession.

Equally, one other driver from Sapele who merely gave his title as Kingsley stated:

“The motion taken by the Afolabi Olawale towards the Osesua faction of PTD was moderately harsh and drastic. I personally don’t have another job. I feed my household with the driving job. The management of NUPENG underneath Afolabi because the Basic Secretary just isn’t portraying the traits of a great chief. A very good chief ought to be capable of search recommendation, however he’s going about this challenge wrongly. By now peace ought to have been restored in PTD, the 2 factions must have been reconciled, however the entire place is presently in severe turmoil, with many courtroom instances right here and there, and drivers are significantly struggling, some are in hospitals, some have even died. These individuals in NUPENG ought to know that there’s God who will reward them and their generations the identical coin they served others,” he lamented. 

Alhaji Mukhtar Mohammed, additionally one of many affected taker drivers in Kaduna narrated his expertise:

“It’s disgusting and embarrassing to see that the one-time Commerce Union which was organized and delivered to limelight by the late Chief (Comrade) Frank Ovie Kokori with the target to guard the curiosity and foster higher working circumstances for the blue collar workers within the Nigeria’s oil and fuel sector would come this low. I actually paid my dues in PTD, it’s so unlucky that Afolabi will deal with me and my different colleagues like this. I’m now managing my household with Okada driving, with very low returns.

“Someone ought to come to our help and take us out of this unhappy and avoidable scenario. One man has tousled each PTD and NUPENG. The stake in PTD, significantly entry to administrative, operational and financial incentives and different alternatives shouldn’t be left within the fingers of stooges who need to siphon the frequent patrimony of PTD underneath the whimps and caprice of overzealous leaders in NUPENG, that’s the reason involved members of PTD of fine conscience are saying sufficient is sufficient. Comrads Fortunate Osesua, Comrade (Hon.) Dayyabu Yusuf Garga, Comrade (Chief) Peter Moudebelu (ONWA), Comrade Humble Obinna Energy, Comrade Olabisi Akinlolu and so on, are able to driving the affairs of PTD and I pray that God will restore them again to the Nationwide workplace of PTD as our leaders.

“In the meantime, the favored cry in PTD now could be that it have to be allowed to breathe such that members may peacefully and conveniently be proud and higher for what they’re doing as we proceed to traverse the size and breadth of Nigeria via distribution and transportation of Petroleum merchandise and provide of fuel to Nigerians of their houses, places of work and factories. 

“It isn’t about constructing a 7-storey Tower with no financial significance, these leaders ought to do higher for the members and make their lives extra significant and ample. We additionally learnt from good authority that the PTD’s cash that was used to erect NUPENG Tower throughout Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti’s tenure when he was our nationwide chairman was made potential as a result of he’s eyeing to be NUPENG President after the tenure of Williams Akporeha, in the meantime the Basic Secretary of NUPENG Afolabi who just isn’t a member of PTD however a paid employees of NUPENG can also be eyeing the exalted place of NUPENG President, and secretly planning to resign six months to the top of his tenure in April 2026. I’ve by no means seen such a desperation in my life.

“NUPENG now totters in direction of a harmful and avoidable canyon of dry bones, as its employees members and department members can now not recognise their union which has been battered by women and men from the darkish womb of time”, Mohammed who spoke in tears acknowledged.

Charles Ibe on his half, a driver additionally who lives in Port Harcourt and father of 5 narrated, “I’m a father of 5, two of my youngsters are now not in class as a result of I now not have a truck to drive. Since 2023 when this PTD disaster began its been hell for all tanker drivers who’re driving vehicles belonging to Comrade Fortunate Osesua. It’s an enormous shock to see that the management of NUPENG significantly the Basic Secretary, Afolabi Olawale grounded all of the vehicles belonging not simply to the Nationwide Chairman of PTD and that of the dep­uty Chairmen however different nationwide executives of PTD who belong to Comrade Osesua’s camp. NUPENG additionally stopped all of the vehicles which can be purported to take merchandise to their fuel stations.

“This oppressive model of management may be very unusual to us and we urge the federal government and the general public to pay attention to this flagrant abuse of energy. We’re uninterested in seeing depraved individuals in positions of authority in NUPENG, as an alternative of making jobs and defending jobs, you are actually the one forcefully pushing individuals into joblessness, abject poverty, desolation and ache. We wish the federal government to urgently intervene within the affairs of PTD and NUPENG and assist to revive sanity.”

Charles additional stated, “Within the curiosity of business peace and concord, it’s urgently anticipated of the Presidency, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Division of State Companies, Police, National Security Adviser, Ministry of Petroleum Sources, Nationwide Meeting (Senate & Home of Representatives), Civil Society Organisations, NLC, MOMAN, NARTO, TUC, DAPMAN, Elders/Veterans of NUPENG and all different crucial stakeholders to look into the present execrable scenario within the PTD Department of NUPENG and discover it an enduring peace, earlier than it spirals uncontrolled and set the nation’s economic system into an avoidable implosion.”