A MEMBER of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Union (PTD), Comrade Olaitan Idris, has raised alarm over looming crisis by members over the imposition of some individuals parading themselves as elected executive officers of the union, in total breach of a recent court order that a genuine election should be conducted and credible officers elected to fill vacant positions.
Olaitan said those claiming to be elected officers sat in a private meeting and arrogated to themselves, positions in the union in disobedience of a subsisting court order and took laws into their hands, believing that they would use money to buy their way into the leadership of the union, an action he said must be stopped to avert further crisis among members.
Tracing the genesis of the division in the union, Olaitan said trouble started after a former national chairman, Otunba Salmon Akanni Oladiti, completed his tenure, but refused to give way to his deputy, Lucky Osesua.
“He insisted on signing the union cheques and control activities at the Lagos zone, where he was a former chairman. In fact, he skillfully orchestrated willful plans to remain relevant and found allies in top officials of NUPENG, with a view to getting their support.
“The first thing they did was to change our by-laws without memorandum to suit his ambitious goal to be the forthcoming NUPENG President. They continued their personal agenda in total breach of our by-laws and they disorganised the entire PTD.
“NUPENG is a mother body of 150 branches. Why should they pitch their tent in PTD if they don’t have a wicked motive? There was supposed to be election in 2022 at the end of the tenure of PTD leadership in Lagos State and the next Warri Zone, but instead of conducting a peaceful transition to take over because Lagos tenure has terminated, the next tenure is Warri Zone, which Oladiti has no say as a member, like others, they connived with a member from Warri and challenged the eligibility of Osesua in court, where Osezua’s eligibility was confirmed.”
He added: “Unfortunately, this did not go well with some of them and they connived with NUPENG and took over the affairs of PTD.
“I am calling on all relevant government agencies, including law enforcement agencies, to step into the matter, because these people are holding our teeming members to ransom.
“There should be proper election according to the court order and all the suspended officers should return to their various duties. The labour law does not permit all these nonsense and lawless election and malpractices they are doing, which are politicising the union unnecessarily. They think they can pocket the judiciary.
“Peace will be restored if the right penalty could be awarded to those who mess up the court order. The court cannot rule their union, but court can correct every lawless act in the union.
“I foresee riot, massive protest and violence, let us reason together. The situations in Nigeria now are terrible and all the arms of government are trying their possible best to fix things, but in PTD, a group is sabotaging the lives and income of people.
“A hungry man is an angry man. If tanker drivers should be allowed to troop into the streets in protest, the economy will suffer.
“We are, therefore, crying out for justice, because I know that the cabal has denied means of livelihood to a lot of our members and they have not been able to feed their families for upwards of two years now. They have lost their properties, living from hand to mouth and many of them are now bankrupt.
“What they are doing now is to mislead members of the public and relevant authorities to believe that there was an election. It is criminal and must be treated as such.”
