Association accuses NUPENG of extortion, excessive levies on tanker owners

…PTD Lagos zone passes vote of no confidence on union leaders

The Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP) has levelled strong allegations against the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), accusing the union of extortion and imposing excessive levies on tanker owners in the downstream oil sector.

The accusations came as the Lagos Zone of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD), a branch of NUPENG, passed a vote of no confidence on the union’s National President, Comrade (Prince) Williams Akporeha, and General Secretary, Comrade Afolabi Olawale.

According to the PTD zonal executives, who met in an emergency session on Monday, September 8, 2025, the NUPENG leadership has become engulfed in greed, impunity, manipulation, and incompetence. Their resolution followed rising tensions over alleged resistance by Dangote Refinery and MRS Holdings Limited to the unionisation of drivers, as well as the deployment of 4,000 Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)-powered trucks nationwide.

In a separate statement issued in Abuja, ADITOP’s National President, Alhaji Lawal Dan-zaki, dissociated the association from NUPENG’s purported strike action. He stressed that ADITOP was established precisely to “checkmate the excesses of NUPENG, PTD, and other illegal levy collectors operating under its umbrella.”

Dan-zaki revealed that over the past five years, ADITOP had petitioned several government agencies, including the Inspector-General of Police, the Department of State Services, the National Security Adviser, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, over what he described as “NUPENG’s illegal and exploitative activities.”

According to him, NUPENG and its affiliates feed off extortion while remitting nothing to the federal treasury.

“NUPENG, PTD, and their affiliated unions extort our members and depot owners one naira per litre of every product loaded in a depot,” he alleged. “On top of that, PTD collects an additional one naira per litre from marketers, in addition to loading charges of between N80,000 and N100,000 per truck. This is outright extortion and economic sabotage.”

The allegations deepen the crisis within NUPENG at a time the downstream oil sector is under strain from the Dangote Refinery’s dominance and the shift to CNG-powered distribution trucks.