PTD chair warns against ‘illegal strikes’ by petrol tanker drivers

Petrol tanker drivers (PTD) union, under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), says it will not condone illegal strike actions.

Augustine Egbon, PTD’s national chair, spoke on Friday when he hosted former leaders of the trade union in his Abuja office.

Egbon said any member of the union calling for illegal strike action would be handed over to law enforcement agencies.

“We PTD branch of NUPENG pledge our total support to the federal government led by Bola Tinubu,” the PTD chair said.

“We will not sabotage his government. Anybody that calls for strike in PTD or NUPENG illegally, we will hand them over to law enforcement agencies.

“We will never support any illegality.”

Earlier, John Ossai, a former PTD chair, said members of the union should be loyal to the Egbon-led executive council, adding that there is no plan by the union to break away from NUPENG.

“I want to use this opportunity to say that all the whole branch of PTD nationwide should have their loyalty to this branch executive because we are NUPENG,” Ossai said.

“By the grace of God today, the informal sector is ruling in NUPENG and by the grace of God, a member of PTD, after the [current] president, will be the NUPENG president.

“No individual should come to turn around this union, because it is uncalled for… it is greed and detrimental. I want to say selfish [people] should not take this union back. We will not accept it and no one will accept it.”

The union leader said PTD members should be law-abiding citizens.

On his part, Tijani Zubair, a PTD leader, said those members who are aggrieved with the process that produced Egbon as leader should “forgive and forget”.

“They should give peace a chance, we are one family. They should give support to the new leadership,” Zubair said.

“The government of Nigeria under President Bola Tinubu needs peace and if there is no peace, investment won’t come to Nigeria.”

Other former national PTD chairs who pledged support to the new chairman are Mudashiru Azeez, Timothy Ogbu and Salmon Akanni Oladiti.