The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers have disabused the minds of Nigerians that it is behind the current fuel scarcity in that oil producing country.
“Our tanker drivers are not on strike, they are available to load the trucks but the product is not there for them to carry; so that is the situation,‘’ he added.
NUPENG Secretary Isaac Aberare told newsmen in Abuja that the marketers say they have no money to import products because the Federal Government is owing them huge sums of money that is suffocating their businesses.
He therefore called on the Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to intervene in the current fuel crisis in the country.
Aberare said that the intervention of the minister was imperative in the resolution of the crisis and also called for the intervention of the NNPC, Petroleum Product Pricing and Regulatory Agency and major players in the sector to tackle the scarcity.
“It is the intervention of the minister that can adequately solve the problem. She is the one who promised the marketers in February that in March, their outstanding subsidy, amounting to N264bn, will be paid,” he said.
The secretary explained that the marketers had claimed that the amount of money being owed them was huge and this had been suffocating their business.
“It is when the money is released that they can import petroleum products; for us as a union. We have little or nothing to address the situation.
Okonjo-Iweala had on February 23 met with members of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria and agreed to remove all bottlenecks in fuel imports.
According to him, this includes the settlement of N100bn before the end of March to banks, in order to avert fuel supply crisis.
The minister had also met with officials of the Debt Management Office and members of the major oil marketers, to reassure them of government’s commitment to the sustained supply of petroleum products.
