The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) has ordered its members, comprising of truck and tanker owners, across the country to resume operations, following the decision of the federal government to suspend the implementation of the ban on fuel tankers with over 45,000-litre capacity.
The National President of NARTO, Alhaji Yusuf Othman, said this on Tuesday in Abuja while addressing journalists on the update of the association’s decision to stop lifting of fuel and withdraw other services they render with their trucks nationwide.
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According to him, the suspending of the strike action was following the intervention of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the Director General (DG) of the Department of State Services (DSS), whereby it was agreed that the union should shelve its strike till January 1, 2021.
Othman said that the new commencement date was to allow for effective dialogue among all the critical stakeholders affected by the ban and also allow for the mapping out strategies on how the directive would be implemented at the end of the day.
He said that in the engagement they had with the NNPC and the DSS, the executive members of NARTO called for more time to enable its members meet the requirements as stipulated in the new directive and also allow for the re-engineering or remodelling of their tankers.
“You may recall that yesterday (Monday), following an emergency meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC), of our great association, it was resolved that transport owners would park their trucks from 22nd-23rd September, 2020 in protest of Federal Government’s decision to ban all trucks of over 45,000 litres capacity from loading petroleum products from all depots throughout the country.
“However, following the intervention of the Group Managing Director (GMD) of NNPC and the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), we are hereby directing all our members to resume operation nationwide.
“This is a directive that we revert to status quo until January 2021 to allow for wider consultation.
“We thank all members for their support and co-operation and praise their patience as we all wait to see to the peaceful resolution of the issues,” Othman said.
He also said that the association would welcome any financial intervention by the government to assist its members to meet up with the directive and also improve their fortunes.
He also warned that if these trucks with 45,000-litres capacity were withdrawn suddenly and promptly as being demanded by the government’s decision, it would create other side effects including avoidable unemployment, especially as it is estimated that over 40,000 drivers, drivers’ mates and artisans would lose their jobs.
He said: “For the records, we wish to state very strongly that our members are already discouraged and distressed even with the fact that the transport sector, which is one of the sectors that are worse hit by the COVID-19 pandemic because of the total restriction of movement, the federal government refused to extend some intervention to the sector as done to many sectors of the economy including Aviation, Agriculture and others.
“In the light of the foregoing and the fact that we understand the reasons behind government’s decision, we equally demand that government should be more empathetic and sensitive to the plight of our members and the very harsh economic situation of the time by giving us ample time to source for money to re-engineer all affected trucks and operations accordingly.”
NARTO had, on Monday, ordered all its members to withdraw their services for two days, effective on Tuesday and Wednesday, September 22 and 23, 2020, to protest the ban on the high capacity tankers and also issued a 10-day strike notice to the Federal Government, effective September 24, 2020 over the issue.
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