Transport owners have rejected the Federal Government’s last-minute appeal to suspend their planned industrial action, vowing to proceed with the strike in solidarity with the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) have declared solidarity with NUPENG in a nationwide industrial action that could paralyse fuel distribution across the country.
The strike, scheduled to begin on Monday, September 8, 2025, comes amid mounting fears over alleged monopolistic practices in the downstream oil and gas sector, particularly linked to the Dangote Group’s operations.
Read also: FG wades into NUPENG-Dangote dispute, summons leaders for Monday meeting
NUPENG denies tanker drivers’ withdrawal
NUPENG, in a strongly worded statement signed by President Williams Akporeha and Afolabi Olawale, General Secretary, on Sunday, dismissed reports that tanker drivers had withdrawn from the strike, calling it “a management-inspired fabrication.”
Olawale Afolabi, the general secretary of NUPENG, in a chat with BusinessDay on Sunday night, said the union was going ahead with its planned action notwithstanding intervention from any quarter.
In response to an inquiry by BusinessDay on whether the union would back down on its planned strike called for Monday, Afolabi said: “Not at all. We are scheduled to start looking for new employment and new skills tomorrow (today).”
The union accused the Direct Trucking Company Drivers Association (DTCDA) of being an “artificially created union” sponsored by business moguls Aliko Dangote and Sayyu Dantata to undermine NUPENG’s Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch.
“The DTCDA is the association which Dangote Group of Companies has formed for the drivers to join compulsorily rather than allowing drivers to join NUPENG, which is the only statutorily recognised union authorised to unionise petroleum tanker drivers,” the statement said.
Read also: Fuel scarcity imminent, as NUPENG, Dangote face-off festers
It further alleged that the DTCDA was being housed in the Lagos office of MRS Energy Limited, owned by Sayyu Dantata.
“Slavery ended centuries ago but some unscrupulous capitalists are making efforts to bring it back. Any worker who cannot exercise the right of association is no better than a slave. Ordinary Nigerians should neither encourage nor support slavish working conditions,” NUPENG warned.
The union called on its members and the public to disregard “propaganda and misinformation” and assured that “solidarity remains constant, for the union makes us strong.”
