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13 million litres of petrol ready for distribution •As Ifeanyi Uba breaks NUPENG strike
May 25, 2015 - 01:34
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Written by:
Tunde Dodondawa - Lagos
Inset is Dr Patrick Ubah, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Oil
THIRTEEN million litres of petrol will be distributed to different parts of the country starting from today, as Capital Oil and Gas Limited started loading the product on Sunday.
This will bring relief to millions of Nigerians who have been paying through the nose to get the product, which has become scarce in the last one week, sequel to the strike embarked upon by members of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) as well as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
According to Dr Patrick Ubah, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Oil, in a statement issued on Sunday, over 500 trucks had started loading petrol at the company’s facility, adding that this would be distributed to various parts of the country to ease the problem people had been encountering.
“Our facility has the capacity to load over 13 million litres of petrol. This comes to approximately about 500 trucks of petroleum products on daily basis.
“It is our belief that once again, our citizens will begin to smile, return to normal family and work life. We call on other petroleum marketers to follow suit and save our nation from this impending economic and social crisis,” Uba said.
He added that “we have ordered our trucks to commence loading products and move overnight to every state of the federation.”
The Capital Oil boss, who said his company took the decision as a way of alleviating the suffering of the Nigerian masses, called on the striking members of NUPENG and PENGASSAN to call off their strike, in order to ease the tension in the country.
“We also call on striking bodies to call off the strike, let us work together for the betterment of our people. As we brief you this moment, our truck park, port reception facilities and our depot complex have been ordered open for business. We are resuming discharge of products from vessels at our berths,” he said.
Uba, who urged Nigerians to embrace deregulation of the sector, said “deregulation will enhance competition, lead to reduction of pump price for petroleum products and ensure constant supply to meet Nigerians’ demand.”
The Capital Oil CEO said the company, on May 16, received an SMS ordering the suspension of loading activities in all its depots from Monday, May18.
He said the company later realised that this directive was as a result of unpaid funds owed transporters by oil marketers who, in turn, were owed by the Federal Government.
Ubah said the development had resulted in immense hardship to “our fellow countrymen and women. We believe that a better solution can be pursued towards solving this problem in a way that does not adversely affect our dear citizens.”
On tackling the traffic challenge on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway, he said “we have a total solution to the traffic menace on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway. In the coming weeks, we hope to engage the Federal Government (Federal Ministry of Transport), Lagos State government and other stakeholders in the affected area to optimally utilise our truck park facility, which has the capacity to accommodate over 1,100 trucks per time and 5,000 on a shift basis.”
