By Tina Amanda
Petroleum Tanker Drivers Unit of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have threatened to shut down its services if three trucks and products content worth about two hundred and ten million naira is not released to them by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp.
The petroleum tanker drivers numbering over thirty had blocked the entrance of the Civil Defense Corp Headquarters, along Oluobasanjo Road, in Port Harcourt, with their trucks in the early hours of Wednesday, June 14, 2023, in protest of the seizure of three trucks fully loaded with petroleum products belonging to its members making the road impassable to motorists.
Zonal Public Relation Officer Petroleum Tanker Drivers of NUPENG, Comrade Johnbosco Alex, in an interview with our Correspondent, said if Civil Defense Corp fails to release the trucks and the content of the product, tanker drivers will be forced to downtone immediately.
According to him, the court has already judged their favour and ordered Civil Defense to release the three trucks, which are forty-five litres capacity each and the content, adding they have failed to carry out the order since January 29, 2023.
“Sometime last August 2022, our members were on their job carrying Premium Motor Spirit PMS, some from Lagos, some from Warri. They arrested these three trucks; we begged the IGP and the Civil Defense because they said they were a combined team after everything, they took the matter to court.
‘The three drivers were locked in the cell for many weeks including their conductors Civil Defense took the three trucks and locked them up at their Ogbogoro site. The State High Court struck out the matter and ordered that the drivers are free to go, that there was no justification for holding them, and that their trucks should be released since there was no evidence showing the three petroleum trucks were carrying illegal products.
“Those trucks were legally loaded with petroleum products from different Depot in Nigeria such as Apapa Lagos, Warri; the waybills are there, the license everything that makes the products genuine is there.
“The judgement of this matter was given on January 29 2023, since then we have been appealing to civil Defense Commander Michael Ogar; this is exactly what he did in Imo state two years ago; it took the intervention of the Commissioner of Police Imo and Governor Uzodinma before the matter was resolved now they have brought him to Rivers State to do the same thing.
“We are here to collect our truck, and the content has been sold, and the Civil Defense Commander is telling us that the products are in a safe place. Is there any place safer than the petroleum tank?
As I am talking to you, the products in the trucks can not be seen as forty-five litres trucks in three places. If you multiply one truck, is gives you about seventy million naira per truck. The truck itself is about one hundred and twenty million naira if sold.
“We are angry we can not continue carrying petroleum products, and Civil Defense will arrest us. We are saying that if Civil Defense fails to release our trucks and the products and allow us to operate, subsequently, there would not be fuel for aeroplanes or ships.
“We are all law-abiding citizens; the civil Defense arm is their rifle, our arm is the tanker, we can make the market women not to move, we can make ship not to work, vehicle not to drive our arm is the strongest weapon, and we believe in it”.
In his response, Public Relations Officer Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corp Rivers State, DSP Olufemi Ayodele, said the Command got a court order for forfeiture of the premium motor spirit products due to how flammable it is to keep such products at every longtime.
He said further that the Command is deliberating with the management of NUPENG to ensure the situation is brought to rest and the matter resolved amicably.
“This morning, it was an embarrassment to us. Sometime last year, the joint task force JTF against illegal oil bunkering activities, oil theft and oil pipeline vandalism in the state JTF involved the Nigerian Army, Navy, Police, DSS and Civil Defense.
“The three trucks were impounded, as the agency statutory empowered to combat illegal oil bunkering, the truck was handed over to the state Command by the Nigerian Army. We approached the court through the legal unit of the Command
“We got an order for forfeiture of the products premium motor spirit, knowing how flammable it is to keep such product at every longtime.
“The federal high court gave the order for the forfeiture of the products. Before we carried it out, we placed an advert through a national daily punch informing them of what we would do.
“Nine months after, we heard that NUPENG was also granted permission to have their products, and the case was in their favour. However, we are working seriously to ensure that the matter is resolved.
“A high power deliberation from the national headquarters has directed the Commandant General Ahmed Audi to ensure the situation is resolved. We have sat together with the management of NUPENG, and we believe in due cause, we will resolve the matter amicably”.
