Adewale Sanyaolu
The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), has raised the alarm over the worsening state of roads , especially Federally owned ones across the country. This was even as it condemned the rising wave of harassment of its members by touts, popularly called area boys.
NUPENG Lagos Zonal Council Chairman, Mr. Tayo Aboyeji, stated this during a one-day safety training for Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) an arm of NUPENG by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and the Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA) in Lagos Tuesday.
Aboyeji lamented that the man-hour loss by its members has taken a negative toll on their operations. ‘‘A journey that is expected to take two days now takes about one week or more due to bad roads. This increases the cost of our operation and delay in delivery of petroleum products.’’
Apart from long delays, he said the attendant effect of damages to vehicles and avoidable incidents on the roads were some of the effects of bad roads.
‘‘ There is no part of this country that is spared. Every part of the country is not passable.
He said NUPENG and the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, recently took a tour to assess the situation on Nigerian roads with a view to nipping some of the observed lapses in the bud.
Speaking on the import of the training, Aboyeji explained that the need to improve on the driving skills of its members informed the decision of the national body of PTD to come up with the initiative.
He said the safety-training programme, which is in its sixth year, has yielded the expected gains as the rate of accidents has drastically reduced through the training.
Under the nationwide initiative, he disclosed that the target in NUPENG Lagos zone was to train about 2,500 members yearly.