THE petrol marketers in Ekiti have called off their strike with immediate effect, following a meeting on Monday on the lingering dispute they had with Governor Ayodele Fayose.
The marketers, who had earlier shut their petrol filling stations in protest over what they claimed was victimisation of their members by the governor, decided to end the dispute after the intervention if stakeholders, including top officials of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG).
After the Ado-Ekiti meeting, National Chairman of Petrol Tanker Drivers branch of NUPENG, Oladiti Akanni, said the decision of the government to suspend in the affected petrol stations, said to have been cite in questionable areas.
Oladiti said it was also resolved that IPMAN/ Petroleum Dealers Association of Nigeria (PEDAN) should work with the committee set up by the government to resolve the crisis amicably.
He commended Governor Fayose for allowing creating the opportunity for them “to see the true situation of things.”
He also pledged the cooperation of his members to the government and to comply with all regulations.
Another member of the NUPENG team, Mr Remi Owolaja, also thanked the governor, pledging that his union would abide with the decisions taken at the meeting.
In a related development, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), a regulatory body for petroleum activities in Nigeria, has expressed support for Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State on his recent clampdown on some fuel marketers in the state following their alleged wrong sitting of petrol stations in the state.
The development led to his revocation of the licenses of some of the petrol stations, which he said were found to have violated regulations guiding the sites where they could be built.
A Controller in the DPR, Mr Wale Oseni, who led a team to Government House, Ado Ekiti, over the controversy, expressed displeasure at what he described as the seemingly arbitrary manner in which some marketers have sited their petrol stations in the state.
Oseni said his team was already beaming its searchlight on the activities of the petrol marketers in the state, noted that a petrol station currently under construction in Adehun Area of Ado-Ekiti, was one of those that violated the regulations of the body, and revealed that the station in question had also failed to inform the DPR of its operation.
Oseni, who described the act as criminal, noted that the owner had “tactfully covered up the construction work in order to keep it away from the public knowledge until it is completed, noting that such was unacceptable.”
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