The meeting between the federal government and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) executives in Lagos ended in deadlock yesterday as the union insisted on embarking on a nationwide strike today.
The meeting was convened by the minister of finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iwala, in a bid to halt the plan strike as well as call off the ongoing strike which members of the union embarked on in Abuja.
NUPENG was led by its National President, Comrade Achese Igwe.
Another meeting will however be held in Abuja today. Today’s meeting will consist of leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Trade Union Congress and an enlarged body of NUPENG national executive members.
The strike, which has paralysed socio-economic activities in Abuja was called by NUPENG in solidarity with oil marketers over delay in payment of their subsidy claims by the federal government.
President of NUPENG Comrade Achese Igwe said in Lagos that the backlog of subsidy being owed marketers by the government is unacceptable to his union because the development posed a serious threat to his members who are in the employ of these marketers.
He also questioned the veracity of subsidy the government claimed it has effected and challenged same to publish the names of the beneficiaries.
Achese, who said the government is not sincere with the subsidy payment, criticized the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo Iweala’s statement that his union is being used by oil marketers to perpetrate strike in the non-payment of subsidy claims.
He said his union will never be used because they are stakeholders in the industry, adding that the failure of the minister to meet the NNPC and marketers payment obligation is a ploy to create hardship for Nigerians.
Meanwhile, some marketers have expressed support for the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers decision to embark on nationwide strike today should government refuse to settle the subsidy arrears owed them.
The marketers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity told our correspondent that the union’s action is the right step in the right direction.
‘’Government cannot continue to treat this subsidy regime like this and expect marketers to still be in business. They should settle us and stop this selective treatment’’, a marketer told our correspondent.
There are apprehensions that Lagos and other parts of the country will witness queues in filling stations from today if the federal government failed to do something to avert the strike.
Executive Secretary of Major Oil Marketing Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) Obafemi Lawore could not be reached for comments.
Meanwhile, the Jetties and Petroleum Tank Farm Owners Association has said it will from Wednesday (today) shut down its depots across the federation to press home its demand for payment of fuel subsidy.
The Executive Secretary of the association, Mr. Enoch Kanawa, made this known in an interview with our correspondent in Abuja on Tuesday.
JEPTFON owns 60 per cent of depots in the country, while the remaining 40 per cent belongs to major marketers.
Kanawa said contrary to claims by the FG that marketers were being paid, none of them had received payments for fuel importation.
He said operators in the industry were currently being owed over N200bn by the government for fuel imported.
This, he said, had led to a halt in their business operations since the banks had refused to lend them money to import fuel.
He said, “We are closing down our operation because it is not practicable to continue in business, since the operating environment is hostile and we believe that we need to be in business.
“Government can still go ahead with its investigation of indicted oil marketers but payment should continue so that we can continue to import products.
“We have collected money from the banks and interest rates are running and all these things are financial burden on us and we are also owing banks.
“So at the moment, the banks are not ready to give us more money to import, and as a matter of fact, many of us have run out of products and within the period, we have been forced to pay salaries and some of us are owing salaries.
“At the moment, we are contemplating retrenching some of our workers when we close down our jetties.
“Government is owing over N200bn to our members generally in the industry for this year alone. We don’t know who they say they are paying. Maybe they are paying those briefcase people because we are not aware of any of our members that have been paid. So we have no option than to close down operation tomorrow.”
No comments:
Post a Comment