The Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers and the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners on Thursday suspended their plans to embark on industrial action.
Both groups had last week threatened to embark on strike over the alleged diversion of the N621bn road fund provided by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and the failure of government to increase freight rate for transporting petrol.
But NNPC announced on Thursday that NUPENG-PTD and NARTO had to suspend their planned industrial action after the intervention of the national oil company.
It said the decision was reached after a critical stakeholders’ engagement that involved the downstream oil sector regulator, NNPC, NUPENG-PTD and NARTO in Abuja on Thursday.
The communique issued at the end of the meeting stated that NNPC provided updates on the current status of the road construction and rehabilitation projects under the road infrastructure tax credit scheme.
It assured the stakeholders that the funding earmarked for the 21 critical roads would be applied for the intended purpose only.
“To allay the fears of the stakeholders, NNPC and all parties commit to working together in the monitoring of the road projects,” the communique read in part.
On the review of freight rate for transporters, it stated that the stakeholders requested for completion of the ongoing discussion on the review of the freight rates to cover operational costs and highlighted the precarious situation that truck owners face in the light of current economic realities.
The downstream regulator informed the meeting that a committee had been constituted to review the rates which include PTD, NARTO and NUPENG in addition to other stakeholders.
“All parties agreed to work expeditiously towards concluding the review of the freight rate and make recommendations to the government,” it stated.
