By Kolawole Ojebisi
The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers has stated that it has no ties with a group claiming to be an association of oil and gas transporters and marketers.
NUPENG said the body lacks legal recognition, pointing out that members of the said group are seeking to exploit unsuspecting Nigerians.
This disclaimer is contained in a statement issued by the National President of NUPENG, Williams Akporeha, and Secretary General, Afolabi Olawale on Monday in Port Harcourt and sent to newsman.
The statement partly reads, “The attention of the leadership of our great Union has been drawn to some advertisements on news media of some unscrupulous and dangerous individuals claiming to be members of one amorphous association they claim is both Transporters and Marketers of the Oil and Gas at the same time.
“And we wish to state that this association is nothing but an assemblage of failed Rent Seekers in the Subsidy Regime and Irredeemable Smugglers of Petroleum Products disguised as businessmen and women.
“The general public and government institutions are hereby warned and strongly advised to be very wary of these individuals who are desperately seeking ways and means to continue to exploit Nigerians and collecting rents in other manners since the current administration removed subsidy from petroleum products and made smuggling unprofitable for them.”
While outlining the legally recognized bodies of NUPENG, it said: “The leadership of our great Union recognizes National Association of Road Transport Owners as the legitimate umbrella body of Transporters in the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry and Employers of Petroleum Tankers Drivers of which our Union has Collective Bargaining Agreement with on behalf of Petroleum Tankers Drivers.
“We also recognise the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria, as well as Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria as legitimate marketers of Oil and Gas products. These are associations of Marketers that are well known and respected in the downstream sector of the Nigeria oil and gas industry.
“There is also no ambiguity in the fact that the Nigeria Labour laws only recognize NUPENG and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria as the umbrella bodies for oil and gas Workers in Nigeria.
“These are the two organisations that represent and protect the job interests of the Nigeria oil and gas workers including Petroleum Tanker Drivers as prescribed in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria”.
NUPENG urged individuals and public officeholders against allowing themselves to be associated with the unnamed group.
“We implore all well-meaning Nigerians and government officials whose names these usurpers and rent seekers are dropping to urgently disregard any invitation from them and publicly denounce them because they are purely mischief-makers, names droppers, and unscrupulous business individuals that can sell their families and country for money and are unfortunately part of those that plunge the country into the current economic woes and hardship that the country is currently battling and struggling with.
“Following numerous failed attempts to coerce our Union into collecting money for them at various petroleum depots, they have now resorted to these names-calling and cheap blackmail to further their insidious rent-seeking schemes,” the statement added.
