The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers on Saturday suspended its solidarity strike against the non-payment of subsidy funds to petroleum products importers.
NUPENG National Public Relations Officer, Mr. Bassey Harry, said the union’s decision to shelve the four-day strike was based on agreements reached between the Federal Government and NUPENG leaders.
Harry, who spoke with newsmen in Port Harcourt on Saturday, said the FG agreed to begin the payment of subsidy funds to jetty and tank farm owners.
Explaining that the non-payment of the subsidy was the reason why the union went on strike, Harry described the removal of subsidy as a ploy by government to inflict hardship on Nigerians.
He said, “Since January this year when government increased the price of Premium Motor Spirit from N45 to N97, it has not paid any subsidy and has not also imported fuel.
“We feel this is a game plan by government because if it has refused to import PMS and has also refused to pay the subsidy, it amounts to deceiving Nigerians.
“The government reached an agreement with labour unions and yet the FG is not doing what was agreed. It is insincerity of the highest order and that was why we went on strike,” the NUPENG spokesman stated.
Harry decried the fact that all roads leading to petroleum depots in the country were in bad shape but expressed optimism that government would soon begin work on the roads.
The spokesman added that the FG also pledged that it would make sure that turnaround maintenance was carried out on the three refineries in the country before the end of 2012.
“Based on these agreements, the NUPENG’s National Executive Council through the leadership of its president, Igwe Achese, hereby declared the strike suspended,” Harry stressed.
He instructed tanker drivers and petroleum depots to begin the loading and distribution of fuel without delay, while appealing to fuel station owners to commence the sales of petroleum products.
Harry, however, warned that any marketer found cheating members of the public would be sanctioned.
In another development, the Producers’ Forum of NUPENG said it would soon embark on a three-day strike over the condition of workers in the upstream sector.
Chairman of the forum, Mr. Amoshuka Daniel, decried the situation where Nigerians were forced to work as contract staff with poor working conditions.
The forum in a communiqué on Saturday sought for the conversion of all contract staff in the upstream sector to permanent workers.
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Let them go and sit them and think of returning any wrongfully collected subsidy...
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