Oil Tanker drivers have boycotted supplies to Lagos, Nigeria’s most populated metropolis, causing petrol and petroleum product scarcity.
According to sources , no oil tanker loaded from any of the depots in Lagos in the last two days and as a result very few petrol stations in the metropolis have been dispensing petroleum products.
This has led to panic-buying of petroleum products, long queues and fuel scarcity.
As the trucks withdrawal from Lagos roads enters day two, leaders of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) have advised residents who need fuel to go to the neighboring states to buy because their decision is limited to only Lagos State.
The Lagos State government had restricted tanker drivers to night movement owing to what the government described as traffic menace they constitute to other road users in the state.
Nigeria depends on a system called ’bridging’ (using petrol tankers to distribute products) for getting petroleum products to all parts of the vast country of 140 million people.
The boycott of the PTD has been described as a strike to protest alleged extortion and harassment by officials of Lagos State Transport Management Agency (LASTMA).
However, the National Chairman of PTD, Alhaji Tokunboh Korodo, has been quick to make clear that the PTD were not on strike, adding that members were only avoiding Lagos roads for reasons of safety and undue harassment.
“Permit me to state emphatically that tanker drivers are not on strike, we are only boycotting Lagos roads. The fact is that the Lagos State government has restricted us to only night movements without providing the basic amenities to make such a policy feasible”. Said Alhaji Korodo.
“There are no street lights, there are no good roads, and most importantly there is no security.”
“LASTMA officials on the roads are another terrible menace that we’ve had to contend with. They are just a bunch of extortionists. A lot of our members have suffered harrowing experiences at the hands of LASTMA officials in Lagos State,” he added.
