The country is about to be thrown into another round of fuel scarcity following an indefinite strike started by the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) over alleged harassment by officials of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).
The long queues at filling stations during fuel scarcity are a nightmare to motorists
Addressing newsmen on Tuesday, February 18, 2019, Chairman of the PTD, Alhaji Sa’idu Al’amura, stated that the industrial action was borne out of the need to protect members of the associations as well as their business which he described as legitimate. According to him, the strike was a tool for the organizations to express their dissatisfaction over the way their members were constantly harassed for doing nothing wrong. Al’amura revealed that the harassments were meted out to members of the organizations whenever they set out to deliver fuel to petrol stations in Kano. He said that no fewer than five trucks were in the custody of the Nigeria Customs Service since they were impounded.
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The strike action which is currently restricted to Kano State may soon extend to other areas. The Chairman said that the associations had been in talks with their members in five states in the North-Western region to jump on the strike train, pending when the issues leading to the harassments by Customs officials would be put to an end. The five states in question include Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Zamfara, and Sokoto.
Speaking further, Al’amura emphasized that the supply of fuel to filling stations in the listed states would be suspended in the course of the strike. He said that this would continue until the organizations’ impounded vehicles were released.
The Customs Public Relations Officer in the Jigawa/Kano Command, Danbaba Isah, stated that the five tankers were impounded for diverting fuel from Kano to Katsina.
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