By Kayode Sanni-Arewa

Members across the four zones of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) Branch of NUPENG representing aggrieved leaders that won their court case in Abuja, in a suit number NICN/ABJ/312/2023, have reacted to a publication made by NUPENG on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 in Daily Sun and the Leadership Newspapers.

The Union’s reaction was articulated on behalf of the concerned PTD members by Comrade Lawrence Mowetei and Comrade Princewill Damiari from Port Harcourt zone.

In a jointly signed statement on Sunday, they said the publications should be taken with a pinch of salt, adding that selfish, desperate and misguided elements within the leadership of NUPENG should stop misleading the public and discontinue from fantasizing about taking over PTD by force.

They maintained that the plot to instigate a crisis in the forthcoming PTD delegates’ conference and truncate the will of the people has not only been exposed but has also failed.

Read them:

“1. The judgment in NICN/ABJ/312/2023 nullified all the elections conducted both in Abuja and Ibadan. Also, the National Executives of PTD which means all the acts of the executives from November 1, 2023, to May 29, 2024, were all a nullity. “Ex nihilo nihil fit,” meaning ” from nothing comes nothing.”

“2. In line with the judgement, NUPENG has flagrantly refused to recall all the PTD members which they illegally suspended from their respective positions. NUPENG has also not reconciled all warying parties and opposition in PTD.

“3. The suspended members have not been allowed to return to PTD and their respective positions before the illegal suspension. Their personal businesses have been under siege: filling stations have been grounded, and their trucks not allowed to load at all depots across the country.

“4. The suspended members are not accredited members of the delegates for the proposed national delegates conference and are still referred to as Ex PTD Leaders by the recent Publication of TRIBUNE of June 26 2024 by NUPENG General Secretary Afolabi Olawale. The list of delegates published have names of Comrades that are dead and buried, in the mortuary and those who are no longer in office because they have completed their terms in office.

“5. In the history of the PTD elections and every election in the world, there is always a campaign. PTD should be allowed to campaign for candidates of their choice, not a Kangaroo candidate already packaged by some “godfathers” in NUPENG. No form of screening was made in the 4 zones nationwide by the electoral committee suggesting that they already have anointed candidates (their stooges and surrogates) in mind as displayed in the Facebook pages of Port Harcourt and Warri Zonal Councils.

“6. NUPENG has shown deep rooted interest and bias in the PTD election and as such we call on the court to appoint a neutral body to be members of the electoral committee and conduct the election. People such as past National Chairmen of PTD, former NUPENG Presidents and their deputies the registrar of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) Abuja, under the strict supervision of the DSS and Ministry of Labour.

“7. The voting system shall be a secret ballot system. The open ballot system is for intimidation and victimization. The Warri, Lagos and Port Harcourt Zonal Chairmen have already threatened that any delegate who refuse to stand behind them will have himself to blame.

“8. The voting shall be with a PTD membership card and not the biometric card that has been heavily compromised by NUPENG and the acclaimed godfathers. Many PTD members were disenfranchised in the course of the biometric revalidation exercise carried out in the heat of the crisis rocking the Union.

“9. The venue of the delegate conference shall be Abuja, which has always been our traditional venue until the godfathers came in and moved it to the location they can manipulate and control. We want our National Delegates Conference at Abuja or a neutral place chosen by both factions.

Comrades Mowetei and Damiari said further: “NUPENG should immediately withdraw the criminal charges against all PTD members in FCT High Court 14, Maitama (suit no..CR/042/23), some of them have already been CLEARED TO CONTEST in the July, 3rd Delegates Conference in Lagos.

“Lagos Zone which is a stronghold of the godfathers in NUPENG who are bent on imposing their stooges and surrogates cannot and should not be venue for 3 consecutive elections in 3 years: 2022 Ibadan, 2023 Ibadan, 2024 Lagos; both factions should agree on a neutral venue and date outside Lagos Zone.

The immediate past National Chairman of PTD and present National Trustee of NUPENG, Comrade Salimon Akanni Oladiti, the Deputy president of NUPENG Comrade Solomon Kilanko, the General Secretary of NUPENG Comrade Afolabi Olufemi Olawale, the Chairman of PTD Lagos Zone Comrade Saheed Gbolahan Adigun, Comrade Michael Oluyemisi Omosanya, and over 80 % of the PTD Unit Chairmen and Trustees are all from Ibadan in Lagos Zone, the obvious reason they are insisting the election must hold in the western part of the country.

“Having been CLEARED TO CONTEST it implies that those standing trial in the criminal case never committed any crime ab initio.

“Kilanko the Deputy president of NUPENG is a witness in the purported criminal case and he is the one unilaterally appointed to head the electoral committee, without doubt he won’t be objective, fair in the discharge of his duties as the chief electoral umpire.”