By Kayode Sanni-Arewa
A prominent member of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union, PTD, Comrade Olaitan Idris, during the week, raised an alarm over looming crisis by its members over the continued parading of some disgruntled elements of the union as their elected executive officers in total breach of recent court order that a genuine election should be conducted and credible officers elected to fill vacant positions in the union.
Comrade Olaitan said that those people claiming to be elected officers sat in a private meeting and arrogated themselves positions in the union in disobedience of a subsisting court order and took laws into their hands believing that they will use money to buy their ways into the leadership of the union stating that their action must be urgently stopped in order to avert serious riot amongst members of the union.
Tracing the genesis of the division in the union, Comrade Olaitan said that trouble started after a former National Chairman of the union, Otunba Salmon Akanni Oladiti (now NUPENG Trustee) completed his tenure but refused to give way to his deputy, Lucky Osesua.
“He insisted on signing the union cheques and control activities at the Lagos zone where he was a former chairman. “In fact, he skillfully orchestrated willful plans to remain relevant and found allies in engaging top officials of NUPENG especially the General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale with a view to getting their support.
“The first thing they did was to change our bye laws without a memorandum to suit his ill conceived ambitious goal to be the forthcoming NUPENG President.
They continued their personal agenda in total breach of our bye laws and they disorganized the entire PTD. NUPENG is a mother body of over 150 branches. Why should they pitch their tent in PTD if they don’t have a wicked and vicious motive?
“There was supposed to be election in 2022 after the end of the tenure of PTD leadership in Lagos state and the next Warri Zone but instead of conducting a peaceful transition to take over because Lagos tenure has terminated, the next tenure is Warri Zone which Otunba has no say as a member like others, they connived with a member from Warri and challenged the eligibility of Osesua.
They went to court and the eligibility of Lucky Osezua was confirmed. Unfortunately, this did not go well with the opposers and they connived with NUPENG and took over the affairs of PTD.
“ I am calling on all relevant government agencies including law enforcement agencies, particularly DSS, Police, NSCDC, EFCC etc, to step into the matter because these people are holding our teeming members to ransom. There should be proper election according to the order of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria and that all the suspended officers should return to their various duties.
The law of labor does not permit all these nonsense and lawless election and malpractices they are doing is politicizing the union unnecessarily. They think they can pocket the judiciary.
“Peace will be restored if the right penalty could be awarded to those who messed up the court order. The court cannot rule the union but the court can correct every lawless act in the Union. I foresee riot, massive protest and violence, let us reason together in the interest of our nation.
“The situation in Nigeria now is terrible and all the arms of the government are trying their possible best to fix things but in PTD, a group of vicious cabals are sabotaging the life and income of people. A hungry man is an angry man. If tanker drivers should be allowed to troop into the streets in protest, the economy will suffer.
“We are, therefore, crying out for justice because I know that the cabal has denied means of livelihood to a lot of our members and they have not been able to feed their families for upwards of two years now.
“They have lost their properties, living from hand to mouth and many of them are now bankrupt. What they are doing now is to mislead members of the public and relevant authorities to believe that there was an election. It is criminal and must be treated as such.”