By Emma Njoku
A stakeholder, Babalola Bolaji, has declared that only the court can effectively resolve the raging crisis in the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Section (PTDS) of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG.
The very critical section of the country’s oil industry has continued to suffer untold setbacks as a result of the lingering crisis, which has assumed a dangerous dimension in recent times.
Addressing a section of newsmen in Lagos, Comrade Bolaji traced the genesis of the crisis to one Olawale Afolabi, whom he accused of assuming the role of an overall boss, instead of an employee. He said as an employee, Afolabi ought to take instruction from his employers and give them professional advice on how to put things straight.
“However, what he (Afolabi) does as a secretary, now, is commanding them. He acts as their boss, not as an employee anymore. The man has really caused the PTDS a lot of havoc. What they are looking for is how to control it. The funniest part of it is that this man is from NUPENG, not an employee of PTD direct. But one of us, Oladiti Salman Akanni, brought him into PTDS. They are all from the same town, so they now want to turn PTD into an ethnic something, no more union, but one man business. This has been the tussle in the PTD and they did not know how to quench it until it aggravated the external crisis,” Comrade Bolaji said.
He also accused Akanni of having a firm grip on PTDS and conniving with some people from NUPENG to cause trouble.
He said: “I want you to know that NUPENG has more than 40 branches under them. The question is why causing trouble in PTD? What is their interest with PTD?
“Their interest is simply selfishness and greed because the audacity given to them from Akanni Salmon has made them now sit on their necks. What they are doing is to impose their people without following the constitutional procedure and it is not right.
“From all indications, resolving the crisis in PTDS now will be a little difficult. This is because NUPENG people have entered them and they don’t want to go out until the court helps them to settle the matter. But they don’t know that nobody is above the law. The status quo ante should be maintained and the court should be allowed to settle the matter.
“If, personally, they want to solve it, NUPENG needs to remove their hand and say okay, how do you people do your elections, how do you people work it out, the predecessors, how did they do it? What they should do is for NUPENG to be an observer. If the matter was reported to NUPENG, they can come in as a mother body and say ‘okay, we are your mother, we select some people from other branches, let us look into their crisis. But these people are the cause of the crisis. It cannot be resolved amicably unless they remove their hands. The way the situation is, it may not be amicably settled except by the judiciary. That is the only thing. My advice is that they should maintain the status quo ante.”
Comrade Bolaji regretted that the lingering crisis in PTD has stripped workers of their rights.
“You can imagine people coming in and beginning to remove people without any offence. There is no constitutional labour law that says you can remove any worker without any crisis, but they’ve interpreted it their own way. They don’t even have any respect for the laws of Nigeria or the court. It is the judiciary that can help out.
“We don’t even enjoy our work since NUPENG took over PTD. NUPENG has about 40 branches, but they sat on PTD. There is a cabal causing this crisis and they are known. We are law abiding tanker drivers and we observe all the rules. They have continued to disobey court orders. Court ordered that the status quo ante should be allowed to remain and nobody should be removed from office. But, they ignored it. They have stopped all our vehicles from working. Our filling stations are not working for over seven months. They are doing this because they feel they have money. We don’t have money, but we must stick to the rule of law.
Asked what the government has done to resolve the crisis, Comrade Bolaji said: “Well, according to the report I heard, they’ve written a letter to NLC, DSS, IGP, and Ministry of Labour to attend to them, but, so far, no reply. They called both parties, but the other party that hijacked the leadership of PTDS did not reply till date. Almost four months now or more, so I don’t know, I don’t know the government body that can step in now to resolve the crisis.
“The advice I can give them is, if they don’t want this crisis to linger, NUPENG should remove their hand, let them oversee others. If that is the way they have been taking offices from others, how many offices will they take?”
Comrade Bolaji expressed some reservations about the role of the police in the efforts to resolve the crisis.
“When the crisis started, police arrested the principal executive of one of the warring parties and took them to a magistrate court for beating some people up. They are doing their findings to know who beat them, agreed. However, while they were on bail, police re-arrested them. They invited them that they should come, that they wanted to look at the case and ended up locking them up. The other party did not come. They charged them to court again, another court. They took them to Kuje prison again and they want them to remain there until they are bailed. It remains a great injustice that must be addressed. Police failed to investigate the case properly. They just framed them up. All I know is that we need prayers to get justice.”