Capital Oil and Gas dares petroleum tanker drivers as trucks load fuel

Capital Oil and Gas Industries Ltd has defied the strike embarked upon by petroleum tanker drivers (PTD) as it opened its gates for some of the drivers to lift fuel on Sunday at its depot at Ibafo in Lagos.

Conducting newsmen round the firm’s complex, Ifeanyi Ubah, managing director and chief operating officer, said he decided to take the action so as to mitigate the sufferings of Nigerians.

He said that with the strike ongoing many Nigerians have been incapacitated economically and are not able to move around.

According to the Capital Oil and Gas boss, each tanker driver would be provided with security personnel in order to protect him from any possible attack from union members.

“As we brief you this moment, our truck park, port reception facilities and our depot complex have been ordered opened. We are ordering and resuming discharge of products from vessel at our berths. We have ordered our trucks to commence loading of products and move overnight to every state of the federation,” he said.

According to him, “We wish to use this medium to thank the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Product and Pipeline Marketing Company (PPMC) for their steadfastness in ensuring the availability of petroleum products. Current PPMC stock level in our storage tanks and buffer stock on vessel awaiting discharge at its jetty is capable of meeting the nation’s need for 15 days.”

He said that Capital Oil and Gas has watched with so much pain, the suffering and hardship citizens have been subjected to as a result of scarcity of petrol, diesel, aviation fuel, and household kerosene.

“We are deeply pained to hear that the hospitals cannot perform surgeries, laboratories are unable to carry out much needed test especially for emergency patients leaving such patient at the risk of dying”, he said.

He stated that in a few days, a new government headed by General Muhammadu Buhari will be sworn in, saying apart from the citizens being unable
to watch the handover on television and unavailability of transportation for attendees of this historic handover, the resulting chaos from this scarcity may shut down the nation and sabotage the efforts Nigeria has made to attain greater height.