The national leadership of Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) branch of NUPENG has described the plot to remove Comrades Lucky Osesua and Yusuf Dayyabu Garga as chairman and deputy chairman, respectively of the PTD as “an enterprise in futility”.
A statement jointly signed on Sunday by national chairman, Lucky Osesua and the national secretary, Humble Power Obinna of the PTD branch, advised NUPENG leadership to stop chasing shadows and concentrate on letting lasting peace reign in the union.
The duo also added that Gambo Tuge, who is a respected leader in PTD, remained law abiding and not a fugitive of the law and could not be labeled with unprintable names simply because he was protecting the interest of the union through legitimate and decent means recognized by the law as well as International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions guiding trade unionism.
They also said that the election conducted in Abuja on Tuesday, 31st October, 2023, by the branch was the one recognised by law.
The Abuja election, they said, subsequently produced Osesua, Garga, Obinna, Akinlolu and other executives.
They equally stressed that those calling for fresh election had not breached any law, nor had they committed any crime.
PTD also condemned the use of the police and other coercive forces to bully them into silence while also maintaining that police cannot be cajoled to fall for their vicious antics by intimidating, victimizing, oppressing and frustrating them through blackmail, forum chopping/trumped-up charges and propaganda.
“Those seeking to harass, intimidate or trying to remove Comrade Lucky Osesua and Comrade Yusuf Dayyabu Garga from the position of National Chairman and Deputy National Chairman respectively, are engaging in what we can call an enterprise in futility because they were validly elected by the great and hardworking members of PTD as stipulated in the union’s rules, guidelines and by-laws.
“Our election duly conducted in Abuja on Tuesday, 31st October, 2023, is the one recognized by law which subsequently produced Osesua, Garga, Obinna, Akinlolu, and other executives. The illegal leadership under Augustine Egbon could not avail itself legitimacy by serially violating the sanctity of our branch’s bye-law and other legal methods of conducting delegates’ conference.”
The body therefore urged the security agencies to weld into the matter in order to ensure that sanity is restored to the Union.