On Monday last week, the Lagos State government staved off a planned strike by the Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association (PTDA) in the state over alleged extortion of its members by security operatives and hoodlums in the course of conducting their lawful business.

Just as the PTDA complained, the  Association of Maritime Truck Owners (AMATO) has also alleged that a trucker pays as much as N250,000 to pass through various checkpoints mounted by security operatives in the course of completing one trip.

The national chairman of the PTDA, Salimonu Oladiti, had said on the eve of the shelved industrial action: “We don’t have much to say. If the issues of extortion and harassment of our members are addressed, we won’t go on strike but if they are not addressed, we will go on with it. Security agents and hoodlums are extorting our members and officials of Lagos State Traffic Management use taser on our drivers and this can kill. 

We have been reporting to the government but nothing has come out of it. The state government called us to a meeting but nothing came out of the meeting. We are still waiting for them to call another meeting.”

The state government eventually called the union leaders for another meeting on Monday and an agreement was reached, which led to the suspension of the planned strike which could have seen a statewide disruption in the distribution of petroleum products with the attendant pain for the 22-million strong population of the state.