‘There ‘ll be no fuel shortage’ — Dangote refinery assures amid tanker drivers’ strike

A spokesperson for Nigeria’s Dangote refinery said Tuesday that the state would not spot a petrol shortage contempt an ongoing onslaught by a national representing substance tanker drivers.

The strike, which began Monday and has since drawn enactment from different unions successful Nigeria and abroad, comes arsenic the refinery, the largest successful Africa, is hiring its ain drivers to present gasoline to retailers.

“There is nary substance shortage, everything is going on,” a refinery spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, told AFP, adding that talks were continuing betwixt the union, the authorities and the company.

Before past year’s opening of the Dangote refinery, with a capableness of 650,000 barrels per day, Nigeria had to import astir each its petrol contempt being a large lipid producer.

Critics pointed to years of neglect and mismanagement of government-owned refineries.

The Dangote refinery has driven down prices of petrol for consumers portion besides shaking up long-entrenched players successful Nigeria’s lipid sector, marred by decades of corruption.

But it has besides sparked monopoly fears arsenic it becomes a almighty subordinate backed by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Last month, the refinery was acceptable to deploy a fleet of thousands of trucks powered by compressed earthy state to administer its petrol nationwide, an inaugural that has been delayed owed to logistics issues.

But the plans person roiled a marketplace wherever much than 20,000 diesel-powered tankers person operated for decades.

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) launched its onslaught Monday, alleging that Dangote’s caller drivers were being hired connected the information they bash not articulation the national — allegations disputed by Dangote.

“What Dangote has shown implicit clip is that he’s not prepared to person workers that volition person a accidental successful his employment,” national president Williams Akporeha told Nigerian broadcaster Arise News connected Tuesday.

NUPENG has seen enactment determination successful from section organisations including the Nigeria Labour Congress arsenic good arsenic groups from overseas including planetary national IndustriALL, based successful Switzerland, and the International Lawyers Assisting Workers (ILAW) web subdivision successful Washington.

Chiejina, the Dangote spokesman, denied the assertion that its drivers were not being allowed to articulation a union, calling it “cheap blackmail”.

“It’s not true… cipher has done that and cipher has ever,” helium said.

AFP.

The station ‘There ‘ll beryllium nary substance shortage’ — Dangote refinery assures amid tanker drivers’ strike appeared archetypal connected Vanguard News.