Stakeholders and workers’ unions at the NNPC Depot in Mosinmi, Sagamu area of Ogun State on Tuesday, October 29th, 2019 trooped to the streets in protest against the deplorable state of Sagamu – Ogijo – Ikorodu road.
The unions, which included the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG), the Petroleum Tankers’ Drivers (PTD) as well as the Independent Marketers’ Branch (IMB) of NUPENG, carried placards and chanted “aluta” songs to drive home their points.
They have however, issued a 7-Day ultimatum to the federal government to indicate genuine intention at repairing the road or risks total shut down of the NNPC Mosinmi depot to create artificial scarcity of the petroleum products in the South West.
Some of the inscriptions on their placards reads: “Sagamu – Ikorodu Road Is Pathetic”, “FG, State; Our Businesses Are At Risk, Save Us”, “NNPC, Sagamu – Ikorodu Road Now Death Trap”, among others.
The unions appealed to the federal government to give express approval for the Ogun state government to enable it rehabilitate the Sagamu – Ogijo – Ikorodu road without further delay, stressing that they were ready to pay toll charge on it.
Chairmen of the unions: Family Adelaja (IPMAN), Ganiyu Adurogangan (PTD), Comrade Olasunkanmi Sodipo (IMB) as well as the former IPMAN chairman, Alhaji Tajudeen Dele who spoke with journalists yesterday during the protest, said the protest became the last option having waited endlessly for government’s intervention without success.
The union leaders lamented that they have lost many of their members to accidents which occurred on the road due to its deplorable condition.
Emphasising that they businesses have become moribund, the union chairmen expressed dismay over what they described as “complete negligence of the road where both the state and federal government generates tangible revenue”.
They explained that they had become incapacitated after spending their unions’ money worth several millions of naira to carry out palliative repairs on the road, “but the state at which it is now, it is beyond our capacity to go further”.
They however, appealed to the federal government to harken to their demands for immediately repair of the road in order to avert the artificial scarcity of petroleum products in the South West which the total shut down of Mosinmi depot could cause.