NUPENG suspends strike as Rivers govt intervenes in fixing bad roads

RESIDENTS of Rivers State and its environs, at the weekend heaved a sigh of relief as the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), suspended the indefinite strike it declared last Thursday, to protest the advanced state of disrepair of sections of the East West Road leading from Elele-Onne.

The residents were already in trepidation over the strike knowing the pains of the attendant fuel scarcity, following such strikes which involves non-lifting and distribution of petroleum products that are usually the major result of such strikes.

Many were already mobilising scarce cash resources to buy and store the products to mitigate the sufferings usually results from such strikes while others are regretting their lack of cash and wondering how they would cope with scarcity of products for their cars and to power their generating sets at home.

It was, therefore, a justifiable relief for them when NUPENG announced at the weekend that following the commitment of the Rivers State government to repair some very bad spots of the road, they had decided to suspend the strike action and resume lifting of products.

Briefing journalists after the meeting with the state Governor, Nyesom Wike, at the Government House in Port Harcourt, the National Industrial Relations Officer of NUPENG, Bassey Harry said the decision to resume the loading of petroleum products followed the intervention of Wike.

“We have given him our word that we are prepared to cooperate with him to see how that road can be fixed as soon as possible. The challenge we had here is that part of the road is completely bad. But to save scarcity of products, we will manage the situation, so that those trucks that would ply that road will know how to go about it, then other ones using other routes will also manage the situation. So we have given him our word that there shall be no scarcity”.

Harry advised the people against panic buying and storing fuel in their houses saying, “people should not go for panic buying, people should not buy fuel and keep in their houses believing there will be scarcity. There is not going to be scarcity because we are prepared. Our meeting was very fruitful”.

He commended Wike for the earlier reconstruction of another section of the road.

“The resolution is that we understand the efforts the governor had made, we have also taken into consideration that when he came in newly, the same area we are mentioning today was like a death trap but within his six months in office, almost 80 per cent of that road was fixed by him. We now believe that with him that road, as promised will be fixed very soon”, Harry stated.