PENGASSAN, NUPENG Threaten Strike Over East-West Road

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) and its industrial counterpart, the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, (NUPENG), Port Harcourt  zone, have threatened to down tools over the deplorable state of the Eleme axis of the East-West Road.

The threat was the fallout of a joint protest in Port Harcourt, yesterday by the two unions organised in collaboration with the Rivers State Council of Trade Union Congress (TUC), to register their discontent over the poor state of the road.

Speaking with newsmen, during the protest, the zonal secretary of PENGASSAN in Port Harcourt, Comrade Micheal Amadi, said the deplorable state of the road had caused sever pains and sufferings to its workers, who battle with traffic grid Lock on daily basis.

Apart from the  psychological torture that the workers pass through, he said, their vehicles were demaged and their offcial duties impaired.

Comrade Amadi regretted why that particular axis of the East-West road that is the only access to the economic heartbeat’ of the nation could be so neglected to that level of decay.

The unionist, who blamed the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) for the neglect, called on the Federal Government to intervene immediately to alleviate the suffering of road users.

He pointed out that the union had resolved to withraw the services of its members, if noting urgent was done, and stated that the plans had the full backing of its national leadership.

Alternatively, PENGASSAN leadership said the union members might cease to pay their taxes and convert the  fund to repair the road.

Also speaking, the Rivers State Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), Comrade Godwin  Eruba decried government’s negligence of the Eleme refinery road despite its importance to the Nigerian economy.

He called on the Federal Government to repair the road and save its users from untold sufferings.

Commenting on the issue, the state chairman of TUC, Comrade Chika Onuegbu who led the protesting workers said, “ if the road is not fixed as soon as possible, the union will have no option than to embark on full scale industrial action.