By; Bayo Akamo, Ibadan.
National Chairman of the Petroleum Tankers Drivers (PTD) branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti has berated the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) over the present fuel scarcity in some parts of the country.
Speaking with journalists in Ibadan, Comrade Oladiti declared that as at present, “75 per cent of the oil we are consuming in the country now is imported into the country by NNPC, while the remaining 25 percentage is for major marketers”.
”We are not conniving with anybody to make Nigerians suffer for fuel. For sometime now, we have not been able to load at NNPC depot in Apata, Ibadan and there is no hope of loading in some other NNPC depot in Southwest. Government is responsible for this problem, because they dont bring enough oil into the country”, he said.
Comrade Oladiti added, “as distributor, we are ready to sell it out. It’s so sad that we are one of the largest producers of oil but we are still suffering”
Speaking further, Comrade Oladiti said as at now,”you cannot say because you want to manage your resources you will continue to suffer, what the government is trying to tackle still exist, corruption is still in the oil industry”.
Emphasizing that “there is corruption, bribery at all the oil depot before you can load your truck”,the PTD Chairman said there is the need for government to find lasting solution to incessant fuel scarcity in the country without further delay as the common man in the country is suffering.
Commenting on the challenges facing PTD members, he declared that” if not because we believe in this government, we just want to wait and see what they can do.
“Tanker drivers across the country are suffering. Look at Ilorin-Oloru-Jebba Road, a distance of less than 60kms; it took a tanker to cross from Ilorin to Jeba 5-7 days, it is a pitty.”
