From left..“Alh. Yusuf Lawal Othman, (National President, NARTO), Comrade Williams Akporeha (National President, NUPENG) Abiodun Adeniji (ED F&A, NMDPRA), Mallam Mele Kyari, Chief Executive Officer/ Group Managing Director, NNPC Limited and Otunba S.A Oladiti (Chairman, PTD)

-Parties Pledge Collaboration on Ensuring Nation Wide Availability of Petroleum Products

The strike by petrol tanker drivers would have added more sufferings to what Nigerians are currently experiencing at filling stations because of scarcity. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) intervened and the strike has been suspended. Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), and National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) participated in the meeting.

Earlier, the grouse of the workers was the alleged diversion of the N621bn road fund provided by NNPC and the government’s failure to increase the freight rate for transporting petrol.

The NNPC gave updates about the state of the road “construction and rehabilitation projects under the road infrastructure tax credit scheme and assured the stakeholders (NUPENG, NARTO, and PTD) that the funding earmarked for the 21 critical roads will be applied for the intended purpose only”.
Below is a communique, issued at the end of the meeting. It contains details of their agreeement:

Communique On Criitical Stakeholders’ Engagement Between NARTO, PTD, NUPENG, NMDPRA and NNPC Limited on February 17, 2022 atT NNPC Towers

Following the engagement between NMDPRA, NNPC, PTD, NARTO, and NUPENG, the parties resolved as follows:

1. Road Rehabilitation
* NNPC provided updates on the current status of the road construction and rehabilitation projects under the road infrastructure tax credit scheme and assured the stakeholders (NUPENG, NARTO and PTD) that the funding earmarked for the 21 critical roads will be applied for the intended purpose only.
* To allay the fears of the stakeholders, NNPC and all parties commit to working together in the monitoring of the road projects.

2. Review of freight rate for transporters
* The stakeholders requested for completion of the ongoing discussion on the review of the freight rates to cover operational costs and highlighted the precarious situation that truck owners face in the light of current economic realities.
* NMDPRA informed the meeting that a committee has been constituted to review the rates which includes PTD, NARTO and NUPENG in addition to other stakeholders.
* All parties agreed to work expeditiously towards concluding the review of the freight rate and make recommendations to the Government. The Authority to advise on definite close-out date during the week of 21st February 2022.

3. Collaboration on ensuring Nationwide availability of petroleum products
* All parties agreed to work closely to ensure efficient distribution of petroleum products across the country.