The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers has issued a 14 days ultimatum to the Federal Government over the alleged lopsided distribution of petroleum products by the petroleum Products Prices regulatory agency.
The President of the NUPENG, Mr. Igwe Achese, issued the ultimatum on behalf of the National executive Committee of the union in Abuja, shortly after a 21-day ultimatum issued on the state of roads in the country was called off in Abuja on Friday.
Igwe said the national executive committee of NUPENG took the decision to suspend the earlier ultimatum because of the observed improvement in the rehabilitation and construction of highways in the country.
He also said that another touchy issue that had to do with casualisation of workers and their prevention from union activities by multinational oil companies was effectively addressed by the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Nwogu, who was said to have agreed to ensure urgent reconstitution of a casualisation/contract committee on the workers casualisation in the upstream and downstream sectors.
However, in spite of the agreement reached between the Federal Government and NUPENG on the two issues bad roads and casualisation, there are ominous signals that unless urgent steps are taken to address a lingering face off between NUPENG and PPPRA, there will be a serious fuel crisis in the country in the next three weeks.
Igwe and indeed the top leadership of NUPENG alleged that the PPPRA was not transparent in the allocation of petroleum products to marketers and depot owners.