Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says it is ever ready to support the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) and the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) in whatever way to enhance the distribution of petroleum products across the country.
NNPC Group Managing Director, Dr. Maikanti Baru, made this commitment at the 4th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the PTD Branch of NUPENG which held Thursday in Abuja.
Speaking on the theme of the conference, “Road Infrastructure in Nigeria: Impacts on Products Distribution”, Dr. Baru disclosed that it was in line with the corporation’s commitment to make life easy for PTD members that it intervened in the rehabilitation of the Dikko Junction to Suleija Depot in Niger State last year.
He listed other palliative road rehabilitation intervention to the union by NNPC to include: Mokwa-Jebba Road and Iwuru 1 and Iwuru 2 portion of Ekpet-Ugep Road in Calabar, Cross River State.
“To cap it all, NNPC is working with the Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing on the rehabilitation of various portions of the Jebba-Mokwa Road that need immediate intervention based on the observations of PTD members who complained about the failed portions which take many long hours for tankers to navigate through”, he stated.
He said NNPC had also been supportive to the PTD in its quest to acquire lands to build trailer parks across the country, adding that the corporation would continue to assist the union in any way that could make life easier for them to perform their onerous duty of taking petroleum products to all parts of the country.
Also speaking at the conference, Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, said the Federal Government had prioritized the rehabilitation of roads that link ports and depots across the country in recognition of the union’s contribution to national economic development.
He said the Federal was committed to rehabilitating all the roads and developing an efficient rail transport system to make life easy, not just for members of PTD but also for all Nigerians.
In his remarks earlier, National President of NUPENG, Comrade Williams Akporeha, said he was very happy with the choice of conference theme by the leadership of PTD, adding that the issue of roads in the country needed an emergency approach.
In his welcome address, the National Chairman of PTD, Comrade Salimon Oladiti, lauded the GMD for his commitment to the rehabilitation of downstream infrastructure across the country, adding that the conference was also an occasion for members of the union to elect new leaders to pilot the affairs of the union for the next four years.