72 killed at Umunya as NUPENG drivers protest bad roads in south East

www.odogwublog.com reports that Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) tanker drivers, Anambra state chapter yesterday protested over what they termed the state of bad roads in the South -East , and called on President Mohammadu Buhari  to come to their aid  by fixing the roads.
They lamented that no fewer than 72 persons have been killed at the Umunya portion of the Onitsha-Enugu expressway since 2013 as a result of  fuel tanker accident, and other accidents at the area. They frowned that the portion remained even worse than before.

 Addressing newsmen in Onitsha, Anambra State, the Unit Chairman of the drivers, Mr Godwin Anyim ,said between June and the end of September, the union had lost over N200 million occasioned by truck falls and related road crashes.

He said “each time our truck gets accident, the truck will burn to ashes, the driver and conductor will die and the product will be lost, because it is highly inflamable”.

Anyim, who was flanked by other leaders of the union including Pius Ani, Ugochukwu ike, Emeka Obi, Izundu Onwunka,  maintained that almost all the federal roads in the South East were death traps.

 He said the situation had led the union into industrial dispute with the government in the past, yet nothing was being done about it.

 The drivers said that despite the death of no fewer than 72 persons at the Umunnya portion of the Onitsha-Enugu expressway in 2013 as a result of  fuel tanker accident, the area remained even worse than before.

“It is sad news for NUPENG that we cannot go freely to Enugu from Onitsha, Umunnya to Awka is a death trap.
“We suffer it more than other road users because the products we carry are highly inflammable.
“We have made our case virtually everywhere: we have asked our state governor to convey this message to the president, but whether the message had been transmitted or not we do not know.
“Right now going from Nnewi to Arondizogu-Okigwe is impossible because of bad roads.
“Enugu-Port Harcourt-Onitsha roads which are the major routes most trucks from South East link depots in South South are in terrible conditions and all of them are federal roads”.
The union maintained that a journey of about 100 kilometers from Onitsha to Enugu would them over four hours instead of one and a half hours.
They said “this loss in man, material and time will not do any good to the economy of a developing country such as Nigeria.

The drivers therefore, called on president Buhari to come to their aid by fixing the roads in the area.